For the first time, representatives from India and Pakistan have been invited to the meeting of the newly constituted International Nuclear Disarmament Commission, which is working towards rectifying the NPT to make it more acceptable.
Former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and former Pakistan army chief Jehangir Karamat will attend the 15-member International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament which is being held in Sydney from October 19-21.
The meeting to shape a global consensus on improving the 28-year-old NPT, before it is reviewed in 2010, the government said.
India and Pakistan are not signatories to the NPT, but have been invited.
The 13 of the 15 members of the commission were revealed who include former US defence secretary William Perry and former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas.
"The task is to develop the political and policy consensus necessary during the period ahead to make the NPT review conference, due in 2010, a success and, more broadly, to advance the nuclear disarmament agenda," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
Australia's former former foreign minister Gareth Evans who will Co-Chair the event said that all nuclear powers including those who have refused to join NPT such as India, Pakistan, North-Korea and Israel must be included in the new process if the world is to ever achieve disarmament.
