A rchive Date
[ 10-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ India ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/01/10/9963-ap.html
Indian government advised to drop 'no first use' nuclear weapons policy
Fri, January 10, 2003
NEW DELHI (AP) - Experts who advise India's government on security matters recommended last month that the country drop its policy of not using nuclear weapons first in a conflict, a newspaper reported Friday.
The government reiterated the long-standing policy when it announced a command structure for its nuclear weapons on Jan. 4. The announcement came two weeks after an advisory group, the National Security Advisory Board, recommended that India abandon the no-first-use doctrine altogether, The Hindustan Times reported Friday.
"India must consider withdrawing from this commitment, as the other nuclear weapon states have not accepted this policy," the newspaper quoted a Dec. 20 report by the group as saying.
Indian and Pakistani leaders have recently made strong statements about the possible consequences of a nuclear war between them. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, and their troops routinely fire at each other across the frontier in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both claim.
India has always said it would not need to use nuclear weapons first in any conflict with Pakistan, which has a smaller army. Defence Minister George Fernandes reiterated that this week, saying that India could "take a bomb or two or more, . . . but there will be no Pakistan left when we have responded."
Pakistan, like the United States and other nuclear weapons countries, has never promised not to strike first.
The Indian advisory board also said that if the United States ever resumes nuclear testing, India should not feel obliged to stick to its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear tests, announced after its 1998 nuclear tests.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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