Practical Strategy

The agony and ecstasy of being a member of the exclusive Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was brought home to India on Friday afternoon when China and other notable countries of Europe raised their concerns on India’s application to get the membership of nuclear elite group “Nuclear Supplier Group”. A huge diplomatic campaign was run by Delhi to get into NSG butt could made so. Delhi was very hopeful for that matter but it cannot materialized its hopes. In the plenary meeting of NSG in South Korean capital Seoul no consensus was built about the Indian application for NSG membership. The announcement was that no decision is made about the inclusion of an non NPT state in NSG but talks will carry on. What an irony is that NSG was built as a reaction to Indian nuclear explosions in 1974 to limit the nuclear trade and transfer of nuclear technology up to some particular countries. After those Indian explosions Canada itself ended its nuclear collaborations with India and now India

South Asia is a region locked up in several conflicts and disputes that have resulted in many wars between India and Pakistan. The last full scale war between India and Pakistan was fought in 1971. Soon after 1971, India displayed its nuclear capability (in 1974) that forced Pakistan to step up its nuclear program in order to counter the Indian threat. Pakistan worked on its nuclear program very secretly and quickly. In 1983, it conducted its cold tests and latter interviews of A Q Khan and Zia-ul-Haq showed that Pakistan had developed nuclear weapons capability by that time. This was the point where balance of terror vis a vis India was roughly established. In late 1980s, relations between India and Pakistan once again became tense. Indian military exercise, Brasstacks made Pakistan cautious that these exercises were a pretext for full-fledged attack on Pakistan and Pakistan concentrated its forces on Eastern border. How India was stopped from attacking Pakistan? Jayantanuja Bandyo