Author: Vladimir Radyuhin
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 24, 2002
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/11/24/stories/2002112404570900.htm
India's nuclear weapons have played
a positive role and helped deter war in the region, a senior Russian parliamentarian
said.
``If India had no nuclear weapons,
war in the region would have been inevitable,'' said the Army General,
Andrei Nikolayev, head of the Defence Committee of the Russian Parliament's
Lower House, the State Duma.
``Even though nuclear weapons are
a great evil, we must admit that India's nukes have largely played a positive
role. India has never chased nuclear weapons for their own sake, but had
the nuclear option forced upon it by circumstances.''
This is the first time a top Russian
politician has voiced unqualified support for the Indian nuclear programme.
Russia deplored the 1998 nuclear
tests, but later conveyed its understanding of India's motives.
Significantly, Gen. Nikolayev's
statement came less than two weeks ahead of the official visit of the Russian
President, Vladimir Putin, to India. The Russian President has resolutely
pursued a policy of building strategic partnership with India.
The positive view of India's nuclear
status was in stark contrast with Moscow's concern for the safety of nuclear
weapons in Pakistan. ``Pakistan has weapons of mass destruction and we're
not sure they cannot fall into evil hands,'' the Russian President, Vladimir
Putin, said after meeting his U. S. counterpart, George W. Bush, in St.
Petersburg on Friday.
Speaking to The Hindu on the eve
of his trip to India later this week, Gen. Nikolayev said shared views
on nuclear weapons were a key element of strategic partnership between
Russia and India.
``In contrast to other nuclear nations,
Russia and India have never regarded nuclear arms as an instrument of war,
but rather as a deterrent against war,'' he said.
He stressed that Russia, bound by
non-proliferation restraints, had never helped India develop its nuclear
weapons.
Gen. Nikolayev will take part in
a seminar on ``Indo-Russian Strategic Partnership in the 21st Century''
jointly organised by the Indian Defence Review and the Indo-Russian Security
Forum in New Delhi on November 29.
