Opinion Something old,something new

Obama’s new nuclear measures,covering this intermediate space,include major reductions in the US nuclear arsenal and a commitment not to develop new nuclear weapons. Obama has also promised not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations that are in compliance with their non-proliferation obligations. The president’s exclusion of Iran and North Korea from this important doctrinal shift has generated some criticism; but there is no doubt that Obama is moving US nuclear weapons policy in the right direction.

Equally significant is Obama’s assurance that he will not retaliate with nuclear weapons to an attack on the United States and its allies with chemical or biological weapons. These decisions are all part of the nuclear posture review,released in Washington earlier this week. This is the third revision of the US nuclear theology since the end of the Cold War,during which Washington had built thousands of nuclear weapons,deployed them around the world and threatened to use them frequently.

At the end of the Cold War,Bill Clinton made no effort to challenge the nuclear status quo. George W. Bush revised the nuclear doctrine in the other direction and made it more muscular. Obama’s emphasis,in contrast,is on reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the US national security strategy.

A day after unveiling a nuclear doctrine,Obama flew into Prague in Central Europe to sign a nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The agreement will mark the first anniversary of Obama’s speech in Prague last year when he promised to move the US and the world,slowly and step by step,towards the long-term goal of nuclear abolition.

Next week at the nuclear security summit in Washington,Obama will promote a new international consensus on securing vulnerable nuclear material and strengthen the international resolve to contain the threat of nuclear terrorism.

All this sets the stage for India to rediscover its forceful voice on global nuclear arms control. At the dawn of the nuclear age,India continually came up with new ideas to dampen the nuclear confrontation among the superpowers. India’s first prime minister,Jawaharlal Nehru,supported the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963,promoted a comprehensive nuclear test ban,campaigned for a freeze on the production of nuclear material,and actively participated in the building of new global institutions such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. The last such Indian initiative was the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan for Nuclear Disarmament that was presented to the United Nations in 1988.

Some of the recent Indian defensiveness was,of course,rooted in the need to protect India’s nuclear arsenal from external pressures after the Cold War. Having won the international acceptance of India’s nuclear arsenal under the India-US civil nuclear initiative and regained access to the global nuclear energy markets,India can now afford to be forward-looking in its nuclear diplomacy.

One initiative that the PM could consider is in limiting the use of nuclear weapons. While Obama has taken a big step towards the traditional Indian understanding that the only purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter their use by others,Delhi has moved away.

After the Pokharan tests in 1998,then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unambiguous in his declaration that India’s nuclear doctrine was “non-use” against non-nuclear states and “no-first use” against other nuclear powers.

The NDA government later modified this doctrine to leave the option open for use of nuclear weapons against chemical and biological attacks. In the changed context of the global nuclear debate today,Dr Singh could review the Indian position and return it to the old moorings on no-first use.

In another move,the PM should strongly support the key pillar of the global non-proliferation system,the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. During his last visit to the US there was some misreading of the PM’s remarks about joining the NPT under certain circumstances.

The fact,however,is that the NPT can’t be revised to India’s satisfaction. Instead of focusing on that hypothetical possibility,Dr Singh must strongly and unilaterally affirm India’s support to the NPT. The PM must make it clear that Delhi will uphold all the obligations and responsibilities of the nuclear weapon states under the NPT.

Finally,the real opportunity for India this week lies in exploring with the rest of the world leaders the intersection of two major threats to regional and international security.

One set of issues relate to nuclear terrorism: that is at the top of the agenda in the Washington summit. Another is a set of facts that Washington finds it hard to discuss in public — that the Pakistan army nurtures the world’s biggest network engaged in illicit trafficking of nuclear material,and also some of the most deadly terror groups in the world.

The first theme — nuclear terrorism — will dominate the formal discussions at the summit. It is on the second,however,that Dr Singh would want to know if Obama’s revolution will lead to greater transparency on Washington’s part and a readiness to engage India on the nuclear challenges right next door to it.

raja.mohan@expressindia.com