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NEWSMAKER: JASWANT SINGH
June 11, 1998The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript |
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Now that India and Pakistan have demonstrated their nuclear capabilities, leaders of both countries are focusing on how to safeguard weapons and reduce the danger of nuclear war. Elizabeth Farnsworth talks with a senior member of India's ruling BJP party about what lies ahead for India's nuclear program.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: India's decision to conduct nuclear tests last month followed through on a campaign pledge of the Hindu Nationalist Bartia Janta Party, which won national elections in March. We have a Newsmaker interview now with the party spokesman on defense and foreign affairs. Jaswant Singh. He is also a member of the cabinet. He's in New York attending meetings at the United Nations. Thank you for being with us Mr. Singh. Pakistan has now followed India's lead and declared a moratorium on further testing. Will India now solidify its pledge and sign the comprehensive test ban treaty?
A RealAudio version of this segment is available.
NEWSHOUR LINKS:
June 10, 1998
Secretary Albright calls for the U.S. and Russia to reduce its nuclear weapons.
June 4, 1998
The world's nuclear powers urge India and Pakistan not to conduct more tests.
June 3, 1998
A report on the CIA's failure to forsee India's nuclear tests.
May 29, 1998
The regional implications of India's and Pakistan's nuclear tests.
May 28, 1998
The Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. , the Indian ambsassador to the U.S. and National Security Advisor Samuel Berger discuss the India/Pakistan dispute.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the military and Asia.
OUTSIDE LINKS:
Information on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Opening up lines of communication between Pakistan and India.
JASWANT SINGH, Indian Defense Spokesman: We are-we welcome Pakistan's decision to declare the moratorium on any further tests. India had volunteered this moratorium soon after the series of tests had been planned and did on the 13th of May. So far as signing the comprehensive test ban treaty is concerned we have made clear our position that we are ready to engage in a discussion to convert this moratorium into an obligation.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And that means you are willing to discuss signing the treaty at this point?
JASWANT SINGH: We are willing to discuss the subscription to this treaty. We have some difficulty with provisions of it, which we would like to engage in with the principal interlocutors.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Singh, will India now deploy nuclear weapons?
JASWANT SINGH: No. That has not been our plan, and that is not our plan now.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you expect Pakistan to deploy nuclear weapons?
JASWANT SINGH: It is really for Pakistan to decide what they wish to do. India's nuclear program is not focused on Pakistan. It is a sad and unfortunate reality that Pakistan's program is indocentric. But we take that into account. We have factored that in and it is not a situation of action and reaction as far as Indo-Pak nuclear program is concerned.
Missile tests in the future?
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Mr. Singh, should we expect to see more missile tests in the near future in India?
JASWANT SINGH: Well, when you suggest missile tests, India has not had an intermediate range ballistic missile test for the past, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, for the past three years. It's some of our neighboring countries that are engaging in development, import, and testing of ballistic missiles. If that continues, I cannot foreswear the possibility of the integrated missile development program of India being called off.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Singh, even though nuclear weapons haven't been deployed, they could be rather quickly, I understand. Could you imagine the circumstances under which India would use nuclear weapons?
JASWANT SINGH: I can't understand any circumstances about India using these nuclear weapons. In today's world they really have a deterrent capability. All that India has done, therefore, is to acquire autonomy over-a strategic autonomy, considering the kind of vacuum that had come into existence in the Southern Asian region when you examine the totality of new nuclear security paradigms obtained in the rest of the world.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Explain that.
Building a new nuclear security paradigm.
JASWANT SINGH: Well, if you examine the stretch from roughly Vancouver to Vladivostock, you have a kind of a nuclear security paradigm that has come into existence through the dissolution of Warsaw Pact. The Asia Pacific is covered in part. China is an independent nuclear power in its own right. It is only Southern Asia and Africa that are out of this protective pattern of security arrangements. Therefore, this in our assessment and a strategic evaluation is an area uncovered and is a vacuum. If we have the kind of neighborhood that India has, which is extremely troubled, and if we have two declared nuclear weapons powers in our neighborhood, the basic requirement is to acquire a balancing deterrent capability.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. I want to talk a little bit now about your relationship with Pakistan. Today Pakistan actually said that they would be willing to meet with India and have peace talks, but at the same time, today, the foreign minister told the Associated Press that without a settlement in Kashmir, there's a strong possibility of a confrontation, most probably nuclear, between the two countries.
JASWANT SINGH: No.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you agree with that?
JASWANT SINGH: No, I do not agree. I have-since I came to New York-had occasion to state three or four days back and repeatedly, indeed, in the conference in the United Nations, that India is ready to talk to Pakistan on any issue and at any date, at any level, at any-in India or in Pakistan-including on the subject of Kashmir. To pre-judge even before the talks have started is, to my mind, a bit disappointing, and thereafter for the minister of external affairs of Pakistan to state that he fears a nuclear confrontation is really to overstate the issue.
The India--China relationship.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Does India look at China, even more than Pakistan, with some trepidation?
JASWANT SINGH: We don't look at anyone with trepidation. These are issues which are objective realities on the ground. It is a fact that Tibet, which is a neighboring area to India, was really militarized in the 1950's, resulting in the Dalai Lama, having to flee Tibet and seek shelter and refuge in India. There has been ever since-there has been a border conflict with the People's Republic of China in 1962 with India. We have a situation of a border dispute. A very large part of India is claimed by China. They are sitting on that territory. There is an unsettled border. These are areas of concern, not of trepidation. About these areas of concern we have engaged with the People's Republic of China meaningfully and seriously over the past some years, and that process of engagement and discussion shall continue. Our approach to China is not of trepidation. These are two great civilizations. They do not approach each other with anxiety or trepidation.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Singh, as you know, the worldwide response to the tests last month has been very strong. I mean, just for example Secretary of State Albright yesterday said-quote--that the payoff for India and Pakistan was mutual insecurity, decreased prosperity, a harvest of fear at home, and condemnation abroad. Have you been surprised by the breadth and the depth of the anger over these tests?
Reactions to Sec. Albright's latest statements.
JASWANT SINGH: Well, I'm not so much surprised as disappointed. I'm disappointed not because of the sentiment that the distinguished secretary of state has expressed. I'm disappointed really by the unrestrained language employed. It is--whether we are secure or no secure, is an assessment, which is a sovereign function. The secretary of state is, of course, entirely free to arrive at conclusions, the conclusions of her department. We do not share those conclusions. As to whether we will become poorer or not become poorer, that is for us to decide, and it is our endeavor that shall determine that. About disappointments and angers that she's given voice to, these are subjective views. We regret that she's found it necessary to express them. We do not necessarily share them.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But looking back, did your party expect this kind of reaction, and was it worth it? All of the condemnation that you've received, was the testing worth it?
JASWANT SINGH: I don't think it's condemnation. There is a marked difference between personal morality and public morality. Public morality-
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I'm sorry. Between what?
The difference between public and personal morality.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, Mr. Singh, thank you very much for being with us.
JASWANT SINGH: You're very kind. Thank you.
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