We have noted with regret that the Security Council has adopted a Presidential
Statement on May 14, 1998 on the underground nuclear tests which
we have
conducted. We are surprised by this, because the Council has
never thought it
necessary even to take cognizance of the many hundreds of nuclear
tests carried out
over the last 50 years, including in 1995 and 1996, when the
de facto moratorium
on testing, which the Council recalls, was already in place.
2. The tests which our scientists carried out are not directed
against any country.
Tests by themselves, and the reconfirmation of a capacity which
had been
demonstrated in 1974, do not jeopardise peace and stability.
Nuclear weapons do,
and the refusal of the nuclear weapons states to consider the
elimination of nuclear
weapons in a multilateral and time-bound framework, despite the
end of the Cold
War, continues to be the single biggest threat to international
peace and stability.
3. It is because of the continuing threat posed to India by the
deployment, overtly
and covertly, of nuclear weapons in the lands and seas adjoining
us that we have
been forced to carry out these tests, so that we can retain a
credible option to
develop these weapons, should they be needed for the security
of India's people,
who constitute one-fifth of the world's population.
4. There is a strong national consensus supporting the Government's
decision to
authorise these tests to protect India's security. Internationally,
there is a growing
realisation that it is disingenuous of the nuclsear weapons states
to insist that the
retention of nuclear weapons is essential for their security
but that the security of all
other states depends on their abjuring these weapons. In this
context, it is essential
to recall that India has been subjected to aggression by one
nuclear weapon state
and to the threat of use of nuclear weapons by another. Our security
concerns,
therefore, go well beyond South Asia.
5. The Statement adopted by the Security Council, therefore, is
to be viewed in this
light and is completely unacceptable to us. India is a responsible
member of the
international community, and has consistently supported the United
Nations. We
were among the first to propose, and continue to promote, the
goal of general and
complete disarmament, and the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
To this end, we
have made a series of concrete proposals for the consideration
of the international
community, and the nuclear weapon states in particular. Every
one of these has been
thwarted and distorted for their own purposes by the nuclear
weapons states. The
CTBT, which we proposed in 1954 as a means of capping and eventually
eliminating nuclear testing and refining by the nuclear weapons
states of their
weapons, and cooperation between them for this purpose. The NPT,
which also
India proposed, became a completely discriminatory treaty, legitimizing
the
possession in eternity of nuclear weapons by the five nuclear
weapons states. At the
end of the Cold War, when the world expected the nuclear weapons
powers to
move towards nuclear disarmament, since the stated reasons for
their retention of
nuclear arsenals had been removed, they have started to alter
their nuclear doctrines
to justify the possible use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear
weapon states.
The nuclear weapon states have completely set their face against
the overwhelming
wish of the international community, and increasingly significant
sections of their own
domestic strategic and military opinion, for meaningful progress
towards nuclear
disarmament. The nuclear weapons states have adopted every ploy
possible to
deflect attention from their policies, which constitute the single
biggest threat to
international peace and security. The Statement adopted by the
Council is in this
unhappy tradition.
6. We would like to take this occasion to express our appreciation
to the members
of the international community, who have shown understanding
to India's concerns
and actions. |
