World Tibet Network News Wednesday, May 13, 1998

13 May 1998

Daily Telegraph

Tim Butcher (Defence Correspondent)

Pakistan came under diplomatic pressure last night not to accelerate the nuclear arms race in the sub-continent after India proved it had nuclear weapons by carrying out three underground detonations.

The tests, the first by India since 1974, represented one of the most significant setbacks for international efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War.

India found itself isolated as the United States threatened economic sanctions, Australia, New Zealand and Canada withdrew their high commissioners and Britain accused it of behaving "irresponsibly".

Pakistan, India's longstanding regional rival, recently carried out test firings of a sophisticated long-range missile. But western military experts were surprised that the Delhi government retaliated by authorising the test explosions.

Observers believed the test firings were ordered partly for political reasons by the Hindu nationalist BJP party, which leads India's fragile coalition government.

India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel have long been regarded as capable of producing a nuclear weapon but the three explosions proved that India had joined the Big Five nucelar powers - America, Russia, China, France and Britain.

India had managed to prepare and carry out the tests without the knowledge of western intelligence organisations. Observers were also surprised at the technical sophistication indicated by the explosions.

In India, the explosions were welcomed as a display of national might.

Senior members of the Pakistan government threatened to carry out nuclear test firings to maintain strategic parity. But President Clinton said: "I urge India's neighbours not to follow suit, not to follow down the path of a dangerous arms race."

The test firings were a setback for international attempts to control nuclear weapons under the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which outlaws test explosions.

India has long rejected the treaty on the grounds that its neighbour, China, already has nuclear weapons.