India is not participating in the first UN conference in more than 20 years on a global nuclear weapons ban which opened here amid objections from major nuclear powers.
More than 120 nations in October last year voted on a UN General Assembly resolution to convene the conference to negotiate a legally binding treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.
Britain, France, Israel, Russia and the US voted no, while China, India and Pakistan abstained from voting on that resolution.
The first substantive session of the conference began here on Monday.
In its Explanation of Vote (EoV) given for its abstention on the resolution in October, India had said that it was "not convinced" that the proposed conference could address the longstanding expectation of the international community for a comprehensive instrument on nuclear disarmament.
India also maintained that the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD) is the single multilateral disarmament negotiation forum.
It had further said that it supports the commencement of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on a Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention, which in addition to prohibition and elimination also includes verification.
It had said that international verification was essential to the global elimination of nuclear weapons, India feels that the current process does not include the verification aspect.
In line with its position that India articulated in the EoV, India has decided not to participate in the current conference that will run through March 31.