The foreign secretary has spelt out India’s approach with clarity
The non-proliferation principles Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran articulated on Monday mark an important milestone in the evolution of India’s nuclear diplomacy. Gone is the old feckless rhetoric on global nuclear disarmament. Instead, Saran has articulated a new nuclear realism that calls on India to address the current non-proliferation challenges in a practical manner. Although there has been a steady adaptation of India’s nuclear diplomacy since the nuclear tests of May 1998 — from the support to missile defence in May 2001 to voting against Iran at the IAEA in September — this is the first time any senior functionary of the government has spelt out India’s non-proliferation approach with such clarity.
Three elements of the doctrine stand out. First is emphasis on national interest as opposed to some ideology that many presume guides India’s nuclear policy. The vote on Iran or the decision to separate India’s civilian and military programmes under the Indo-US nuclear pact are steps based on a cold national security calculus, according to Saran. Second, India is prepared to help construct a new set of global nuclear rules that go beyond even the NPT. To those who missed the underlying logic, the government is reminding them that New Delhi has always complied with the obligations of a nuclear weapon state under the NPT.
Third, and most important, is the assertion that as a rising global power India can no longer “sit out” such controversial debates as the current one on Iran. Saran made it clear there are unresolved issues in relation to Iran’s clandestine nuclear programme and that India will not avoid them merely because Iran is a member of the non-aligned movement and is friendly to India. If Delhi cannot condone Iran’s nuclear transgression it can no longer keep quiet on the nuclear black market operated by Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan. In underlining its responsible record on non-proliferation and offering unstinted support to new global efforts on non-proliferation, Saran has answered those in the world who ask why India should be treated as a nuclear exception. He has also signaled that the Iran vote last month was part of a larger policy and not a one-off decision under US pressure.
