World Tibet Network News Tuesday, May 05, 1998 (II)

NEW DELHI, May 5 (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is angry with his controversial defence minister George Fernandes for describing China as India's number one enemy, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The Times of India said Vajpayee, who also holds the external affairs portfolio, would advise cabinet colleagues holding "sensitive" ministries against making strong remarks.

"The prime minister is learnt to be perturbed over his defence minister's comments as India and China are in the process of strengthening their ties," the daily said of Fernandes.

Fernandes, a socialist in the Hindu nationalist-led coalition, told a private TV network Sunday that India faced a bigger threat from China than arch-rival Pakistan.

He also said India, which fought a border war with China in 1962, would make nuclear weapons if it ran out of options.

"China is potential threat number one," Fernandes said.

"The potential threat from China is greater than that from Pakistan, and any person who is concerned about India's security must agree with that fact."

He said China had stockpiled nuclear weapons in Tibet along India's northern borders and military airfields in Tibet had been extended in the last six months.

He also said China was training Myanmar's army and had set up a "massive

electronic surveillance establishment," on Myanmar's Coco Islands on the northern tip of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Sino-Indian tension eased following a series of leadership contacts which began after a visit by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to Beijing in 1988.

Fernandes is a long-time critic of China and supporter of Tibet's independence. Last month he alleged that China had illegally built a helipad on Indian territory.

Fernandes' comments followed the first-ever visit to India by a chief of the Chinese army, General Fu Quanyou.

India says China still holds 40,000 square kilometres (16,000 square miles) of its territory in Kashmir. China lays claim to a swathe of Indian territory in the far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

On Monday, the Indian external affairs ministry, headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, declined to comment on Fernandes' remarks.

Indian newspapers also attacked Fernandes Tuesday for his comments with some describing them as "verbal ballistics" which could harm Sino-Indian ties.

The Indian Express said: "Verbal ballistics are a notoriously poor substitute for well thought out defence strategies..."

The Pioneer said Fernandes ran the risk of creating a diplomatic row. "The government will have to expend a substantial amount of political energy to diffuse the situation."

The Times in an editorial titled "George and the Dragon" cautioned the defence minister and said he needed to learn "prudence."

"It is one thing to feel someone is an enemy and another to tell the enemy precisely what you think of him. The former leads to effective defence preparedness and the latter to dynamic instability in which your enemy begins to alter his strategy."

The mass-circulated Hindistan Times urged Fernandes to be more diplomatic.

"Fernandes would have done well to keep to himself the righteous indignation over China's hegemonistic zeal in this part of the globe as there is very little room in international diplomacy for shooting from the hip."