India must maintain a "credible nuclear deterrent" as long as weapons of mass destruction remain a threat to its security, Defense Minister George Fernandes said Monday.
Fernandes told a seminar organised by the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses that India was committed to peace and a doctrine of "defensive-defense" but this meant putting nuclear safeguards in place.
"Ensuring peace is an important goal of our military power. This can be achieved primarily by ensuring credible deterrent capabilities -- both nuclear as well as conventional, in today's global environment," said Fernandes.
"Deterrence to be effective must aim to raise the costs of aggression to levels that would dissuade the aggressor from attempting aggression," he added.
Fernades also said India needed to invest and take full advantage of new technology.
"Today, technology has come a long way. Through air power it makes it possible to strike targets at long-range with great accuracy with lethal weapons," said Fernandes.
"This constitutes a key element in our national strategy of credible deterrence, both conventional as well as nuclear," the defense minister added.
Fernandes added that historically, well-established democracies were more prone to be less prepared and caught by surprise.
"All the previous wars were imposed on us and proved that surprise is always possible by the aggressor," Fernandes said.
"First, the type of war that maybe imposed on us again will be limited in scope and aim. The nuclear hang will be an important factor in such wars," Fernandes added.
Alarmed at the prospect of a nuclear arms race on the subcontinent, the United States imposed economic sanctions on India after it conducted nuclear arms tests in May 1998 and triggered a tit-for-tat response from Pakistan.
Many of those sanctions still remain, as Washington presses the Indian government to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) -- which India rejects as weighted in favor of established nuclear powers.
However, last month, India reaffirmed that, subject to its national interests, it would continue its voluntary moratorium on fresh nuclear tests until the CTBT took effect -- NEW DELHI(AFP)
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