Global Security Newswire

An Indian scientist's recent call for his nation to conduct further nuclear tests reflects a view shared by well-placed Indian nuclear researchers, military experts and foreign officials who oppose ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, analysts said in a Washington Post article published today (see GSN, Sept. 25).

K. Santhanam, who participated in India's last nuclear blasts in May 1998, said that the yield of the only thermonuclear device tested did not meet expectations. He urged New Delhi to try again and not to sign a global prohibition against nuclear test explosions.

"Santhanam finally realized the enormity of consequences of India's never testing again," said Bharat Karnad, a former Indian National Security Advisory Board official who helped draft the nation's nuclear doctrine.

"It has to do with the perception that [Indian Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh is predisposed to offer no resistance to [U.S. President Barack] Obama's nonproliferation policy push and may sign the CTBT. And that the government has to be stopped from doing this. It is, in fact, about keeping our testing option open," Karnad said.

The issue "is not whether India will test, but when," he said.

A new Indian nuclear test would prompt the United States to cancel a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement reached with the South Asian nation last year, according to the Post (see GSN, July 23). New Delhi agreed last year to allow international monitoring of its civilian nuclear facilities in exchange for access to U.S. nuclear materials and technology.

"The cost is intolerable if India tests," said Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal. "We will suffer international isolation. It will be a huge setback to our bid for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council."

"Santhanam and other Indian Dr. Strangeloves see this as a way to block progress toward disarmament and possibly get more nuclear testing going before it is too late," added Arms Control Association head Daryl Kimball. "Indian testing would likely trigger additional Pakistani testing ... and could even provoke a resumption of Chinese testing" (Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, Oct. 5).