India 'deeply concerned'

NUCLEAR ASIA

Impact on N-deal with US being debated.

India today said it was "deeply concerned" at the reported nuclear test conducted by Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It pointed out that not only was the test in violation of DPRK's international commitments, it also jeopardised peace, stability and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region.

However, the crucial point India made without belabouring it too much was that the "test also highlights the dangers of clandestine proliferation". In this, India was hinting clearly at the Pakistan-DPRK linkage which it has pointed out to the West several times in the past.

Diplomats blamed the US and its western allies for adopting "very soft" approach towards the clandestine axis of atomic cooperation between Pakistan, China and North Korea and wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ascertain how this programme materialised and whether it was with the help of the A Q Khan network emanating from Pakistan for black-marketing of nuclear technology.

However, several diplomats and military strategists also wondered what the impact of the nuclear tests would be on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal that is awaiting clearance in the US.

Throughout the political debate over the nuclear deal, lawmakers in the US have warned that if India was accorded a status of a nuclear power without having signed the nuclear non proliferation treaty, there was nothing to stop it from becoming another North Korea, which signed the NPT but withdrew from it to test its nuclear weapon which in turn was derived from other "friendly states".

The argument of several lawmakers was that India had used enriched uranium given to it by Canada in good faith to conduct its first nuclear test. Like North Korea, which had got help from China and Pakistan, India could do it again.

Therefore, it was not wise to deal in civil nuclear energy with a power that could divert uranium meant for civilian use for military purposes.

All those arguments are likely to be revived as the debate over the civil nuclear energy legislation rages in the US.

However, what is of concern to India now is the destabilisation of power relations in Asia. Given that a new PM has taken over in Japan, there is now every likelihood of Japan moving out of the protection of the US nuclear umbrella and seeking to test its own weapon, which is a screwdriver's turn away, in the interests of its own security. Japan's position has been that it will not be the first to use the nuclear bomb but it will not be the second either.

Strategic analyst Jasjit Singh told PTI in an interview that "the US-Japan security relationship will now strengthen ever further and we should expect more polarisation in Asia which is not good for India."

Singh stressed that India should ensure that it does not get sucked into any side and remain absolutely non-aligned. "There is no other way but universal nuclear disarmament which we in India seem to have forgotten," he warned.