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1998 Pokhran Nuclear Tests
The 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests sent a message to the world that although India is a peace-loving nation, it would not let anyone to harm its sovereignty, integrity and unit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday on the 25th anniversary of the tests. India conducted five nuclear tests of advanced weapon designs between May 11 and 13 at Rajasthan's Pokhran desert that propelled the country into a select group of nations having capabilities to develop nuclear weapons. The tests, carried out during the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, were the culmination of a committed team effort and backed by the development of the necessary know-how and expertise over decades. The tests triggered strong reactions from many countries. India maintained that it carried out the tests to have 'credible minimum deterrence' and it will follow the approach of "no first use", noting that it would not be the first one to launch a nuclear weapon. In 2003, India officially came out with its
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday lauded then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's handling of the diplomatic situation following the nuclear tests in 1998 and said that within a space of two years India had engaged all the major countries of the world. Presiding over the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee memorial lecture that was delivered by former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan here, Jaishankar also hailed Vajpayee's stint as an external affairs minister, and his role in strengthening India's ties with the US and Russia. The external affairs minister said the fundamentals of mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest that are talked about now in terms of the modus vivendi with China, a lot of it is credited to Vajpayee. Asserting that Vajpayee was never "impervious" to the challenges of terrorism, Jaishankar hailed his realism in using all instruments at his command to actually try to forge a basis of relationships in this region which would very ...