July 1998 Edition
The Sri Lankan View
Sri Lanka became the first State to comprehensively support India over its latest testing of atomic weapons and to empathise with it on international sanctions against it over this issue. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, categorically stated that Colombo was ``certainly not opposed to India becoming a nuclear power.'' He expressed himself, on moral grounds, against the principle of sanctions being imposed on India by certain countries.
He also called for an eventual disappearance of the Nuclear Club itself. Discounting a ``dramatic'' diplomatic fall-out in South Asia, the Minister said India's new action would ``not disturb'' either the schedule of the next SAARC summit proposed to be held in Colombo in July or the main business of the conference. The nuclear question would not be placed on the formal SAARC agenda, he emphasised.
While wishing to remain equidistant from both India and Pakistan on the nuclear-arms issue, commenting on India's latest nuclear tests, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister said: ``How can one say that we are opposed to India emerging as a nuclear power. The more fundamental question is whether there should be any nuclear powers in the world at all. .. " He added that Sri Lanka was certainly not opposed to India becoming a nuclear power, and in reference to Pakistan added that it was not opposed to anybody becoming a nuclear power, because he didn't think that the Nuclear Club must be permanently closed (by being restricted) to five members and saw no danger whatsover to India-Sri Lanka relations. He emphasized that Sri Lanka was traditionally ``very friendly with both India and Pakistan''.
For SAARC, on the other hand, he did not see at this stage any signs of a critical mass of a crisis. 'Asked about the possibility of Pakistan insisting on placing the nuclear issue on the SAARC agenda, Mr. Kadirgamar said: ``We will not allow this. .. This has a very strong bilateral (India-Pakistan) element.'' It ``will be a ruin of SAARC'' if such contentious bilateral issues were to be brought on the formal agenda.
The Russian View
All major political parties of Russia, though differing on their stands on India`s nuclear tests, have opposed the idea of any sanctions against India (as reported by Voice of Russia).
Significantly, Russia`s Communist party, in a challenge to both President Boris Yeltsin and the United States, said it did not object to India`s nuclear tests.
''India again proved that it`s a major power on the planet and everyone will have to respect it,`` Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said at a news conference.
Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that Speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament Gennady Seleznyov said that India acted correctly when it staged a series of nuclear tests last week, . ''I believe that India acted correctly. In this respect, it acts very consistently and it was a correct decision not to curtail its research programme halfway despite US pressure. I can only admire their national pride,`` he commented. He also spoke against imposing sanctions on India, noting that the country has already expressed its willingness to ''join all programmes upholding nuclear non-proliferation and banning underground nuclear tests.``
Meanwhile, distancing himself from the West, Mr Yeltsin underlined the positive changes in Russia`s relations with India and China and made it a point to assert that his visit to India in October this year stands unchanged.
Indian ambassador to Russia, Ronen Sen said that Indo-Russian defence ties would not be affected by the recent Indian nuclear tests. Inspired by Russia`s firm pro-India posture at the Birmingham G-8 summit of the world`s most industrialised nations, the Indian ambassador stressed that the Indo-Russian defence ties were ''genuinely a partnership, based on purchases, projects for joint development and research."
The Indian ambassador told the popular Russian channel TV-6 that the defence ties between the two countries were based on mutual benefit. "The basis of our relationship is on common vital national interests and common desire for strategic partnership based on trust and mutual understanding of each other`s interests", said Mr Sen.
Press Views from Romania
A June 4 report from the Deccan Herald highlighted reactions to India's nuclear tests from Romania. The leading Romanian newspaper, Nation, reported that Indian nuclear scientists had proved their mettle against heavy odds by developing some new technologies and building a homegrown capability to produce any type of nuclear weapon.
"The Indian scientists, despite being barred access to advanced western technology, without funds, with limited material resources compared to their colleagues from the west or the former Soviet states, have proved themselves by creating new technologies as efficent and as economically viable," read the report.
It said Indian nuclear scientists had shaken the international scientific community by obtaining "tritium", the radioactive isotope of hydrogen, by means of an equipment of detritiumization of heavy water, used as moderator in nuclear power stations.
Having achieved the breakthrough, India, unlike western nations, had placed it at the disposal of scientists from the world over, the Nation said. Research scientists at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre had offered the chart of the detritiumisation plant to those interested in it, it said.
According to the Nation, some military experts commented at a recent closed-door North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) meeting that isolating some countries with high human potential, such as India, was one of the systematic mistakes of western strategists.
"The scientific achievements from these countries are sometimes higher than that of western ones and jeopardise the world nuclear balance by placing them over the other side of the barricade," Nato military experts were quoted by the Romanian paper as having said.
Writing in another prominent Romanian daily, Curierul National, the former Warsaw Pact disarmament expert, Mr Alexandru Campeanu, strongly criticised the new Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He said it had created a club of monopoly nuclear powers who had the right to nuclear weapons while other states were denied access to these arsenal.
He wrote that the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests had breached a necessary hole in the CTBT, which was unfair and discriminatory and allowed a small group of powerful nations to dominate the world by threatening to use force.
The time has come for the world to ponder over these discriminations and make a move towards genuine global disarmament by re-starting the Geneva talks, the paper noted.
Developments in the Middle East
On June 8, Atul Aneja of the Hindu reported that for the first time India had held joint naval exercises with Iran sending powerful signals about the emerging security equations between South Asia and the Persian Gulf after the nuclear tests by New Delhi and Islamabad. Two of the navy's high profile ships, the indigenously built INS Ganga and the INS Himgiri, participated in manoeuvres with Iran. Exercises were also held with Oman, reinforcing a naval relationship which has been consciously nurtured in the last few years. A Kilo class submarine, INS Sindhuratna participated in these manoeuvres.
South Africa
On July 21, South Africa said that nuclear tests by India were not an impediment to bilateral ties and that it ``understood'' India's compulsions for the atomic explosions .
South Africa was "satisfied'' with the Indian explanation of the rationale for its atomic tests, Mr. Matsila (South Africa's High Commissioner) said, pointing out that New Delhi had conveyed its viewpoint both at the official and political level. He added that South Africa did not see the tests by India and Pakistan as "a signal'' for an arms race in the subcontinent. South Africa had arrived at this conclusion based on meetings with Indian and Pakistani envoys. He also noted that South Africa was aware that India's nuclear tests had not diluted its commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Back to Nuclear Essay
Back
to South Asian Voice
(If you liked our site, or would like to help with the South Asian Voice project and help us expand our reach, please click here)
Click here to contact South Asian Voice