Krishna says want peaceful resolution to disputes with Pakistan

UNITED NATIONS: India said here Saturday that the Asian country attaches "the highest priority to the goal of nuclear disarmament" and "stands committed to the safeguarding of international peace and security while we want peaceful resolution of disputes with Pakistan."

The statement came as S.M. Krishna, Indian minister of external affairs, was speaking to the annual debate of the General Assembly, which entered its fourth day here on Saturday.

"India attaches the highest priority to the goal of nuclear disarmament and has an impeccable non-proliferation record," he said. "We welcome the renewed global debate on achieving a world free of nuclear weapons."

"This corresponds with India's longstanding and consistent advocacy of nuclear disarmament as one of the highest priority of the international community," he said. "We have put forward a number of proposals on nuclear disarmament in the UN, including a Working Paper in 2006, proposing elements to fashion a new consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation."

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in a bid to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons.

The resolution was adopted shortly after U.S. President Barack ObamaBarack Obama opened the Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, the first of its kind in the history of the 15-nationUN body. The United States holds the rotating Council presidency in September.

"We will continue to engage with key countries to intensify this debate with the hope that greater international understanding could lend itself to a firm commitment for action on nuclear disarmament," he said.

Meanwhile, the minister said, "India stands committed to the safeguarding of international peace and security over the past five decades, we contributed more than 100,000 peacekeepers and have suffered the highest number of casualties in these decades."

"Strengthening the normative basis for peacekeeping operations and giving major Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) a greater say, will serve to make peacekeeping more effective," he said.