India

"the refusal of the nuclear weapon states to consider the elimination of nuclear weapons...continues to be the single biggest threat to international peace and security. It is because of the continuing threat posed to India by the deployment of nuclear weapons, that we have been forced to carry out these tests." – Indian Press Statement, May 15, 1998

In 1998 India openly tested nuclear weapons and declared that it had achieved a nuclear capability. It had been widely suspected that India had an undisclosed nuclear capability since the early 1970s.  The decision to openly declare nuclear capability has been attributed to a combination of reasons including domestic popularity, an attempt to gain greater international consideration and frustration at the lack of progress towards nuclear disarmament by the nuclear weapon states.

The government followed its tests with policy announcements including the report on "Indian nuclear doctrine" released by India’s National Security Advisory Board in August 1999. These hold that:

·         India would not be the first to use nuclear weapons and would support a treaty on non use of nuclear weapons

·         India supports negotiations on a nuclear weapons abolition convention

·         India supports the inclusion of the threat or use of nuclear weapons as a crime in the Statute of the International Criminal Court

India had initially proposed negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but in 1996 opposed its conclusion on the grounds that it allowed sub-critical explosions and other high-tech nuclear weapons experiments and was no longer  a step towards nuclear disarmament.

See: India's Nuclear Doctrine and Policy,  G.Kanwal,

- Avert a War: Statement by Indian Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace

- A limited war may not stay limited for long

PNND Briefing Book online- Nuclear Doctrine, India

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