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India will not compromise on strategic needs of the country

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, July 29, IRNA
India-Security
Rejecting Opposition criticism and allaying fears by Left party allies on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asserted that his Government will never compromise on the country's fundamental and strategic needs, reports Press Trust of India.

Making a statement in Parliament on his recent official visit to the US, Singh brushed aside opposition apprehensions on the joint statement issued in Washington after his talks with American President George W. Bush.

"There is nothing in this joint statement that amounts to limiting or inhibiting our strategic nuclear weapons programme over which we will retain unrestricted, complete and autonomous control," he stressed.

Observing that the basis for the understanding was a clear recognition that India is a responsible nuclear power, he made it clear that Government will not allow any fissile material shortages or any other material limitations on the country's strategic programmes in order to meet current or future requirements.

"I would like to make it clear that our commitments would be conditional upon, and reciprocal to, the US fulfilling its side of this understanding," he said.

The Prime Minister who made identical statements in both the Upper House and Lower House of the Indian Parliament said the joint statement referred to "our identifying, and separating civilian and military nuclear facilities in a phased manner and taking a decision to place voluntarily civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards".

Asserting that India will never accept discrimination, he said "reciprocity" was key to the implementation of all the steps enumerated in the joint statement. Contending that India expected a close co-relation between the actions to be taken by it and US, Singh said "Indian actions will be contigent at every stage on actions taken by the other said (the US).

"Before voluntarily placing our civilian facilities under IAEA safeguard, we will ensure that all restrictions on India have been lifted. Our autonomy of decision-making will not be circumscribed in any manner", he asserted.

"Our strategic policies and assets are a source of national security and will continue to be so", he said and assured the House that the government "will not allow any fissile material shortages or any other material limitations on our strategic programmes in order to meet current or future requirements."
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