Apart from taking on the Dragon along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India is now gearing up to deal with China’s ‘unbridled’ ambition to amass nuclear weapons, which, according to Indian diplomats, threatens the nuclear balance not only in Asia but in the whole world.
India’s diplomatic team is in action to take this issue up with the world’s major powers and also with the United Nations (UN) and the different fora working towards nuclear non-proliferation. The clear-cut message that India is giving out to the global community is that China’s arms build-up “will threaten the nuclear balance” in the whole world apart from Asia.
According to sources, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has gone through the Pentagon’s report saying, “China is expected to at least double the number of its nuclear warheads over the next 10 years”. The United States already shares the views of India on what is being seen as China’s uncontrolled efforts to augment nuclear power and expand nuke weapons,” says an official.
A top-level meeting at the MEA was held a few days ago to formulate the strategy to take the matter up with the world community and the UN, according to sources. “Pressure needs to be built up on Beijing to put a break on its unfair nuclear expansion programme,” says a diplomat.
Sources told The Daily Guardian that India’s strategy is to impress upon the major powers that China’s nuclear ambition is also the cause of concern for the entire world, not only for India and other countries of the region. “Jaishankar has also spoken to his Russian counterpart regarding this issue recently in Moscow,” sources said.
“The Pentagon report detailing China’s nuclear ambition and programme is at the table of top leadership in India also,” say sources. Indian strategists have taken a serious note of the revelations and have asked the MEA officials to act at the diplomatic level accordingly.
The Pentagon report further says that “China is nearing the ability to launch nuclear attacks by land, air and sea, a capacity known as a triad.” The Pentagon annual report has been submitted to the US Congress on China’s military. It said, “The growth projection was based on factors including Beijing having enough material to double its nuclear weapons stockpile without new fissile material production.” Now, the time has come to raise the issue to curtail Chinese nuclear activities, says an official.
Indian officials have argued that the report has revealed China’s nuclear ambition at a time when the US and Russia are reducing their nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War. According to an information, “The 1991 Start Treaty allowed each side 6000 deployable strategic nuclear warheads; the 2010 treaty, known as New Start, lowered that limit to 1550 operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads.”
“Will Chinese nuclear ambitions not affect this restraint being shown by the world powers like this,” Indian officials contend. Indian embassy officials in the US have had interactions with officers in the Pentagon and Trump administration and discussed at length the content of the “report” vis-à-vis Chinese nuclear expansion ambition. The US officials are learnt to have endorsed India’s views on the same, saying that “China’s behaviour will set off a nuclear arms race leading to other countries tending to increase their Narsenal in response.”
India wants the US, Russia, the UK, Germany and France to engage China in dialogue to convince it to stop its nuclear expansion programme. China must recognise its obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), says an official. Top US officials are learnt to have decided to carry this argument forward in mission mode to other nations such Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, UK, France and Germany. “The US Embassy has already initiated a talk with Russian government over the Pentagon’s revelations about Chinese nuke capability and its plan to augment it further,” say sources.