In a statement at the CD, Arundhati Ghose, India's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, not only reiterated India's position on time-bound nuclear disarmament, but, for the first time, clearly spelt out its reservations about the CTBT being pushed by the West, especially the US. The unusually forthright statement, shorn of the pussyfooting in earlier official stands, appears to have been made now that negotiations on the CTBT are at a crucial phase. Going by the present schedule, the CTBT has to be wrapped up by April and opened for signatures when the UN General Assembly meets in New York in September.