ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Fernandes invited to visit US, yet to make up his mind

Defence Minister George Fernandes today said he had received an invitation to visit the United States of America.

Asked when he would visit the US which had imposed sanctions against India following the pokhran explosions, he told newspersons in Calcutta that he had not given any thought to the invitation till now.

Replying to another question, he said he had received a letter from the National Unity Party of Arkansas, but refused to divulge further details.

Fernandes did not say whether he received the invitation after the nuclear tests.

Turning to the nuclear tests, Fernandes said they should not affect the confidence building measures initiated earlier with China and Pakistan.

"The confidence building measures will continue, and nuclear tests should not come in the way of the ongoing talks with China and Pakistan," he said.

Fernandes defended India's decision to go in for nuclear tests, and said it had been done in view of the threat perception.

"We are concerned about our defence, and we have done the right thing," he said. "There was no political compulsion, and we went for the nuclear tests because of the threat perception."

To a question on the moratorium on nuclear testing, he said India has always kept its nuclear option open and there has been no change in the policy so far.

Fernandes said India was now a nuclear weapon state, and that the country should not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in its present form.

"If we sign the CTBT it will be on our terms of eliminating the existing discriminatory provisions," he said.

He, however, said the government had been talking of discussing the CTBT, since everybody had been suggesting that India should sign the treaty.

The defence minister denied that he had ever said China is the country's number one enemy.

"What I have said is that from the perception of threat, China is number one. Enemy is a connotation all together," he said.

To a question, he said talks had been continuing with China on border problems, and there had been several working groups for dealing with these problems. The discussions will continue till a settlement is reached, he added.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report