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September 28, 1998

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Vajpayee blasts P-5 for enforcing nuclear hegemony

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Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today launched a frontal attack on the traditional nuclear powers for their hypocrisy and hegemony for forcing India to review its nuclear policy.

Under the circumstances, ''We were forced to exercise our nuclear options both for reasons of national security and a powerful challenge to the practitioners of nuclear apartheid. With this firm action, we have reminded the nuclear club that the voice of the 1/6th of humanity cannot be ignored,'' he said addressing the Asia Society in New York.

''For 50 years, world peace has been secured on the tenures principle of nuclear deterrence. But this cannot be a durable basis of peace. The conscience of humanity demands that the world move away from deterrence to disarmament," Vajpayee said.

Unfortunately, the nuclear powers first used the Cold War as a pretext for the costly arms race. Now that the Cold War is over, they have sought to perpetuate their hegemony through a discriminatory Non-Proliferation Treaty which is bound to fail, Vajpayee said. He expressed hope that the leadership of the United States, the country with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and hence greater responsibility for peace on the earth, would take the right course of action in the coming years.

''We raised the voice for disarmament, both on our own behalf and on behalf of members of the Non-Aligned Movement at every multilateral and bilateral forum. Not only was India's demand disregarded, its sovereign right to keep the nuclear option open was sought to be curtailed.''

Apprehensions have been expressed in some quarters that the recent development in South Asia had raised the spectre of an arms race and heightened tension.

Vajpayee said those who voiced these apprehensions argue that India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the last 50 years. But, they forget to add that there has been no war in the past over 25 years. And that is because of the bilateral Shimla Agreement arrived at between India and Pakistan in 1972.

''Contrary to what some may believe, bilateralism works best without third party intervention, howsoever well intentioned."

Vajpayee said India believed that Indo-US relations, restructured on an equal footing, constitute the key element in the architecture of tomorrow's democratised world order .

''I must confess to being baffled by the unsatisfactory current state of relations between the two countries. We are the two largest democracies in the world, and have similar political cultures, a free press and the rule of law. We both have a tradition of private enterprise and free markets.

''I see no conflict of interests between the two countries in the foreseeable future and yet all of us would agree that the full potential of the relationship has not been realised in the last 50 years.

''The United States does not appreciate and accommodate India's interests and concerns whether it is regional arrangements dealing with Afghanistan, cooperative arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region, global organisations like the United Nations Security Council or their discriminatory nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.''

Vajpayee regretted that India had been subjected to technology denials since independence.

''Our own export regimes are extremely stringent and there has been no leakage of equipment or technology from India. Despite this, we find the US unwilling to accommodate India in terms of technology transfers.''

UNI

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