CTBT talks: India to fix deterrent level
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 16 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said that the country will not succumb to any country’s pressure on the nuclear issue and asserted that India will have the capability and means to deter present and future threats.

In his reply to members who had sought clarifications on his statement on "Bilateral talks with the United States" in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, the Prime Minister said :" No country can compel India to do things not in its security interests."

The government had the supreme national obligation to ensure the security of present and future generations in a nuclear world which has been thrust upon us, Mr Vajpayee said adding that " in this context, the government has announced its determination to maintain a credible minimum nuclear deterrent".

Mr Vajpayee explained that minimum deterrent meant not only the capability but the "means to deter present threats and defend ourselves against any future threats".

Earlier, in his firm and categorical intervention, the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, said the actions of nuclear weapon countries including the "sanction crazy" USA, demonstrated "astonishing and unacceptable arrogance" in preaching to India exactly the opposite of what they practised.

The External Affairs Minister rejected the viewpoint that Pakistan’s nuclear tests were in response to the Pokhran blasts and asserted that New Delhi would not allow Islamabad to "ride piggy back on the nuclear issue to enter the Kashmir valley".

Mr Singh declared that India was a nuclear state, irrespective of whether or not this status was conferred on New Delhi. "The US cannot dis-invent facts about India’s nuclear weapons status", he said adding that India’s nuclear tests were a demonstration of the country’s determination to break the shackles of nuclear apartheid. "It was an attempt to obtain for India the much needed strategic space in the post cold war period", he pointed out.

Clarifying that there was no "underhand or over-hand" economic pressure on India by the USA and other countries in talks on the nuclear issue, Mr Singh said:" We have firmly put across our security concerns and the imperative of maintaining a minimum credible nuclear deterrent." The minimum deterrent could not be quantified and had to be worked out from time to time keeping in view the security needs of the nation, he pointed out adding that the newly constituted National Security Council would undertake the strategic defence review based on national consensus.

On the same lines, the Prime Minister, in his reply, said that a deterrent was not a question of numbers but of a policy approach based on the consensus that existed on these matters.

"Our approach is not expansive or aggressive but which carries assurance and self-confidence", Mr Vajpayee said adding that the existence of the deterrent and the country’s sovereign right to determine its nature were the fundamental premises on which discussions with the key interlocuters were being conducted.

Responding to members’ concerns, the Prime Minister said "we are currently guided by the assurance that our stand does not constrain our research and development programme of the ability to maintain the safety and effectiveness of our deterrent, now and in the future".

Commenting on the attitude of the nuclear weapon states, Mr Vajpayee said:" We have always collectively raised our voice against a discriminatory world order whether in security or political or economic spheres.