I told Prime Minister Gilani that our conduct is an open book. If Pakistan has any evidence, and they have not given me any and no dossier has been given, we are willing to look at it because we have nothing to hide.

I believe that it is as much in Pakistan's vital interest as it is in ours to make peace. Pakistan must defeat terrorism, before being consumed by it. I believe the current leadership there understands the need for action.

I was told by the parliamentarians who accompanied Prime Minister Gilani that there is now a political consensus in Pakistan against terrorism. That should strengthen the hands of its leaders in taking the hard decisions that will be needed to destroy terrorism and its sponsors in their country.

Our objective, as I said at the outset, must be a permanent peace with Pakistan, where we are bound together by a shared future and a common prosperity.

I believe that there is a large constituency for peace in both countries. The majority of people in both countries want an honourable settlement of the problems between us that have festered far too long and want to set aside the animosities of the past. We know this, but in the past there have been hurdles in a consistent pursuit of this path. As a result, the enemies of peace have flourished. They want to make our alienation permanent, the distance between our two countries an unbridgeable divide. In the interests of our people, and in the interest of peace and prosperity of South Asia, we must not let this happen.

That is why I hope and pray that the leadership in Pakistan will have the strength and the courage to defeat those who want to destroy, not just peace between India and Pakistan, but the future of South Asia. As I have said before, if they show that strength and that courage, we will meet them more than half way.

There are uncertainties on the horizon, and I cannot predict the future in dealing with neighbours, two nuclear powers. We have to begin to trust each other, but not blindly, but trust and verify. People say that we have broken the national consensus. I refuse to believe that we have broken the national consensus.

For the present we have agreed that the Foreign Secretaries will meet as often as necessary and report to the two Foreign Ministers who will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The two Foreign Ministers have met even before the Joint Statement in Trieste. I met President Zardari in Russia. So in operational terms the effect of the Statement that the two Foreign Secretaries will meet as often as necessary followed by the Foreign Ministers is no more than what we are doing at present. Does it involve surrender or a sign of weakness?

As neighbours it is our obligation to keep our channels open. Look at what is happening in the world. The US and Iran have been sworn enemies for thirty years, and yet they feel compelled to enter into a dialogue. Unless we want to go to war with Pakistan, dialogue is the only way out. But we should do so on the basis of trust but verify.

On End Use Monitoring

All governments, including our Government, are particular about the end uses to which exported defence equipment and technologies are put to and for preventing them from falling into wrong hands.

Since the late nineties, the Governments of India and the US have entered into End Use Monitoring arrangements for the import of US high-technology defence equipment and supplies. These were negotiated before this agreement in each case by successive Governments of India. The Government has only accepted those arrangements which are fully in consonance with our sovereignty and dignity.

What we have now agreed with the US is a generic formulation which will apply to future such supplies that India chooses to undertake. By agreeing to a generic formulation, we have introduced an element of predictability in what is otherwise an adhoc case by case negotiations on each occasion.

I should add that we need access to all technologies available in the world for the modernization of our defence forces. The threats to the country are growing and we need to have the capability to deal with them, and to be ahead of them. Our Armed Forces are entitled to the best equipment available anywhere in the world. It is also in our interest to diversify to the maximum extent possible the sources of our imports of defence items and equipment.

You have my assurance that the Government has taken all precautions to ensure an outcome that guarantees our sovereignty and national interest. Nothing in the text that has been'agreed to compromises India's sovereignty. There is no provision for any unilateral action by the US side with regard to inspection or related matters. India has the sovereign right to jointly decide, including through joint consultations, the verification procedure. Any verification has to follow a request, it has to be on a mutually acceptable date and at a mutually acceptable venue. There is no provision for on-site inspections or granting of access to any military site or sensitive areas. This is the position in regard to the end use monitoring.

On Climate Change

The Major Economic For'm Declaration adopted at L'Aquila is not a declaration of Climate Change policy by India, nor is it a bilateral declaration between India and another country or a group of countries. It is a declaration that represents a shared view among 17 developed and developing countries, the latter category including China, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. Therefore, the formulations are necessarily generally worded to reflect different approaches and positions of a fairly diverse group of countries.

It has been argued in some quarters that the reference in the Declaration to a scientific view that global temperature increase should not exceed 2 Degree C, represents a s'gnificant shift in India's position on Climate Change and that it may oblige us to accept emission reduction targets. This is a one-sided and misleading interpretation of the contents of the Declaration.

It is India's view, which has been consistently voiced at all forums, that global warming is taking place and that its adverse consequences will impact most heavily on developing countries like India. The reference in a document to 2 Degree C increase as a possible threshold reflects a prevalent scientific opinion internationally and only reinforces what India has been saying about the dangers from global warming. True, this is the first time that India has accepted a reference to 2 Degree C as a possible threshold guiding global action, but this is entirely in line with our stated position on global warming.

Drawing attention to the seriousness of global warming does not automatically translate into a compulsion on the part of India or other developing countries represented in the Major Economic Forum to accept emission reduction obligations. I would like to mention that our position and the Chinese position are nearly identical, and we have been coordinating with that country. Quite to the contrary, the greater the threat from global warming, the greater the responsibility of developed countries to take on ambitious emission reduction targets. That is why, 37 developing countries including India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, have tabled a submission at the multilateral negotiations, asking the developed countries to accept reduction targets of at least 40% by 2020 with 1990 as the baseline.

The Major Economic Forum Declaration reaffirms the principles and provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in particular, the principle of equity and of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. As is well-known, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change imposes emission reduction targets only on developed countries. Developing countries are committed to sustainable development. The full incremental cost of any mitigation by them must be fully compensated by transfers of financial and technological resources from developed countries. This is fully reflected in the Major Economic Forum Declaration.

Furthermore, at the insistence of India, supported by other developing countries, the Declaration includes an explicit acknowledgement that in undertakin' climate change action, the ''irst and overriding priority' of developing countries will be their pursuit of the goals of economic and social development and poverty eradication. This should allay any apprehension that India will be under pressure to undertake commitments that may undermine her economic growth prospects.

On the G 8 Statement on nuclear issues

Some Members have raised the issue of the Statement issued by the G-8 countries on 'on-Proliferation at their L'Aquila Summit in Italy earlier in July, and the references in it to the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology.

The concern appears to be as to whether an effort is being made by certain countries to prevent the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology to non-NPT countries, i.e., countries like India who have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The government is fully committed to the achievement of full international civil nuclear cooperation. Consistent with this objective, in September last year India secured a clean exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, one that was India-specific. At that time also attempts were made to make a distinction. The NSG has agreed to transfer all technologies consistent with the'r national laws.

The 'Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India' approved by the Nuclear Suppliers Group on September 6, 2008 contains India's reciprocal commitments and actions in exchange for access to international civil nuclear cooperation. It is our expectation that any future decisions of the NSG relating to the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology would take into account the special status accorded to India by the NSG. The NSG has given us this clean exemption knowing full well that we are not a signatory to the NPT.

Prohibition by the NSG of such transfers would require a consensus amongst all the 46 countries. This does not exist at present. The exemption given to India by the NSG provides for consultations and we will hence remain engaged with that body, so that any decisions take into account the special status accorded to India by it.

As far as the G-8 is concerned, the fact is that we have no civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the G8 bloc per se. We have, however, signed bilateral agreements with France, Russia and the United States. As I have said before, and I repeat it here, when I raised this matter with President Sarkozy, he was gracious enough to tell me that as far as France is concerned, there will be no restrictions. He also said that if we want him to go public on this, he will do so. Therefore, there is no consensus in the NSG to debar India from such technologies. We expect that the countries concerned will honour and implement their bilateral commitments.

In the course of the discussions, some Hon'ble Members have raised the issue of our accepting pre-conditions for transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology. I wish to once again state that pending global nuclear disarmament, there is no question of India joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon State.

I would also like to clarify that the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology ha' no bearing whatsoever on India's upfront entitlement to reprocess foreign origin spent fuel and the use of such fuel in our own safeguarded facilities.

Finally, I would like to bring to the attention of this august House that India has full mastery of the entire Nuclear Fuel Cycle, and this includes enrichment and reprocessing technology. We have a well entrenched E&R infrastructure as well. Our domestic three-stage Nuclear Power Programme is entirely indigenous and self-sustaining. Our indigenous Fast Breeder Reactor Programme and linked technology puts us in the league of those very few nations which today possess cutting-edge technologies.

The transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology to India as part of full international civil nuclear cooperation would be an additionality to accelerate our three-stage programme.