The Hindu : India's n-arms helped deter war: Russian MP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 24, 2002

International

International

India's n-arms helped deter war: Russian MP

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW NOV. 23. India's nuclear weapons have played a positive role and helped deter war in the region, a senior Russian parliamentarian said.

``If India had no nuclear weapons, war in the region would have been inevitable,'' said the Army General, Andrei Nikolayev, head of the Defence Committee of the Russian Parliament's Lower House, the State Duma.

``Even though nuclear weapons are a great evil, we must admit that India's nukes have largely played a positive role. India has never chased nuclear weapons for their own sake, but had the nuclear option forced upon it by circumstances.''

This is the first time a top Russian politician has voiced unqualified support for the Indian nuclear programme.

Russia deplored the 1998 nuclear tests, but later conveyed its understanding of India's motives.

Significantly, Gen. Nikolayev's statement came less than two weeks ahead of the official visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to India. The Russian President has resolutely pursued a policy of building strategic partnership with India.

The positive view of India's nuclear status was in stark contrast with Moscow's concern for the safety of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. ``Pakistan has weapons of mass destruction and we're not sure they cannot fall into evil hands,'' the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said after meeting his U. S. counterpart, George W. Bush, in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Speaking to The Hindu on the eve of his trip to India later this week, Gen. Nikolayev said shared views on nuclear weapons were a key element of strategic partnership between Russia and India.

``In contrast to other nuclear nations, Russia and India have never regarded nuclear arms as an instrument of war, but rather as a deterrent against war,'' he said.

He stressed that Russia, bound by non-proliferation restraints, had never helped India develop its nuclear weapons.

Gen. Nikolayev will take part in a seminar on ``Indo-Russian Strategic Partnership in the 21st Century'' jointly organised by the Indian Defence Review and the Indo-Russian Security Forum in New Delhi on November 29.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

I have fulfilled my promise: Musharraf

Russian army to go professional

Call for stability in Central Asia

Fund to rebuild northeast to be kept outside Sri Lanka

Sonia to deliver Oxford lecture

Miss World pageant shifted to London

Five of Indian origin convicted in £ 3m. heist

India's n-arms helped deter war: Russian MP