World Tibet Network News Tuesday, May 19, 1998

BOMBAY, May 18 (AFP) - Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes on Mondaya gain accused China of being a bigger threat to his country than Pakistan and said India's nuclear tests last week were a product of grim neccessity.Fernandes, who triggered a storm in Sino-Indian relations with similar comments on May 3, said he did not regret the statement."I repeat, China is the biggest threat to us," Fernandes, a firebrand socialist in India's new Hindu nationalist-led coalition government, told a public rally in Bombay."We certainly have tensions and disputes with Pakistan, but for a country like India, Pakistan is not our biggest threat. The biggest threat is China," Fernandes said.India justified its decision last week to test five nuclear bombs on the presence of an "overt nuclear weapon state" on its border, a clear reference to China which is one of the five declared nuclear powers.China, which fought a border war with India in 1962, reacted angrily to the tests and Indian comments that followed. Fernandes ar

gued: "China conducted more than 40 tests and has hundreds of nuclear-tipped missiles and no part of India is safe from China.

"The defence minister also said China signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) only after conducting scores of nuclear tests and 24 year safter the accord was put up.India has rejected the NPT and the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as discriminatory."It is wrong to say that our government was being adventurist or that we have upset the national consensus," said Fernandes."The national consensus is that India shall keep its nuclear options open,"he said to applause.Speaking of India five tests, one of which involved a 45-kiloton hydrogen bomb, the veteran socialist said the decision to carry out the tests was taken after a "great deal of deliberation and anticipation of reactions."

"We knew that there would be all kinds of reaction as well as sanctions from some countries, but we took the decision on national interest."The decision was taken bearing in mind the government's perception ofthreats to national security, said Fernandes, adding that "if such firm decisions are not taken our future could be very grim."Fernandes also said his anti-Chinese comments before the tests were based on his own assessment and beliefs."Some people say that I was being adventurist and that I was being prompted by the United States, but India's leadership had recognised China as ourbiggest threat from the 1950s.

"Fernandes's comments at the beginning of the month upset the Chinese authorities, who described the allegations as ridiculous and said the comments could strain improving relations.China reacted angrily to the tests last week, and its official Xinhua news agency again condemned India on Monday. The test explosions "posed a grave threat to peace and stability in SouthAsia and the world, undermining international efforts for non-proliferation and a complete test ban of nuclear weapons and arousing strong condemnation worldwide," said the agency.Fernandes, in an interview with a private television station, had also said China was supplying missile technology to Pakistan and that it had stockpiled nuclear missiles in Tibet.He accused Beijing of training the army of Myanmar (Burma) and said China had set up an elaborate electronics surveillance station in an island off India's south eastern coast to spy on the country