India Reasserts Right to Test Nuclear Weapons

The pending U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal would not affect India’s right to conduct explosive nuclear testing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 18).

Singh sought to quell domestic critics who have expressed concern that U.S. lawmakers have sought to limit India’s nuclear capabilities under the deal.  The pact would open the door for the United States to sell nuclear technology and materials to India’s nuclear power sector, but some Indian opposition leaders have said the deal could also limit India’s freedom to develop and field nuclear weapons.

Singh has sought to ease those concerns.

“There is no scope for capping of our strategic (nuclear) program,” he told Parliament in a statement, according to the Press Trust of India.  “It will be decided by the people, government and Parliament of the country and not by any outside power.”

Singh said India plans to continue its unilateral testing moratorium, in place since the nation tested several weapons in 1998, but New Delhi would not commit in any other fashion to limit testing.

“This has been made unambiguously clear (to the U.S.),” he said (Associated Press/Indianapolis Star, Aug. 24)

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