|
"On at least three occasions before 1998,
other powers used the explicit or implicit threat
of nuclear weapons to try and change India's behaviour,"
National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon
said at a national outreach conference on global
nuclear disarmament.
Menon disclosed Aug 21 that after India became
a declared nuclear weapons state in 1998, it has
not faced such threats.
"So the possession of nuclear weapons has,
empirically speaking, deterred others from attempting
nuclear coercion or blackmail against India,"
he observed.
The day-long conference, organised by the Indian
Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and supported
by the External Affairs Ministry, saw the participation
of nearly 1500 students from around 37 universities.
It was held to commemorate the 68th birth anniversary
of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who presented
a plan for a nuclear-weapons-free world order
at the UN General Assembly June 9, 1988.
In an oblique reference to Pakistan, Menon stressed
that India has consistently maintained that its
nuclear weapons were weapons of deterrence and
not war-fighting weapons. "These weapons
are for use against an attack on India."
"Unlike certain other nuclear weapon states,
India's weapons were not meant to redress a military
imbalance, or to compensate for some perceived
inferiority in conventional military terms, or
to serve some tactical or operational military
need on the battlefield," he said.
Notably, India has a declared policy of No First
Use (NFU) against nuclear states and No Use against
non-nuclear states.
Menon underlined that said the acquisition of
nuclear weapons has imparted an added authority
to India's moral authority for universal disarmament
on the global fora.
"We spent 24 years after our first peaceful
nuclear explosion in 1974 urging and working for
universal nuclear disarmament and a nuclear free
world," he said.
India argued for a nuclear weapons free world
out of conviction that such a scenario would enhance
national security and that of the rest of the
world, he said.
"But sadly this was a conviction and view
that obtained much lip sympathy and verbal support
but was actually flouted in practice with increasing
impunity by others," Menon said.
"And when the division of the world into
nuclear weapon haves and have-nots was sought
to be made permanent in the nineties it became
clear that possession of nuclear weapons was necessary
if our attempts to promote a nuclear weapon free
world were to be taken seriously and have some
effect," he said.
|
