Premier declares India nuclear state

NEW DELHI, May 15 Kyodo - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared Friday that India has become a nuclear state with a ''big bomb.'' ''We have a big bomb now for which the necessary command and control system is also in place,'' Vajpayee said in an interview with India's leading newsweekly India Today. ''Ours will never be weapons of aggression,'' he said. Vajpayee said India ''now is a nuclear weapons state.'' He also asserted that New Delhi does not want to cover its nuclear explosions ''with a veil of needless ambiguity.'' In an earlier speech before supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, Vajpayee said India will not hesitate to use its nuclear might for self-defense. He said India conducted the recent series of nuclear tests to keep up with scientific developments in the nuclear field and that the tests were not triggered by threats from particular states. He also urged other countries, including the United States and Japan, to reconsider their decisions to impose economic sanctions on India. Meanwhile, Vajpayee stressed that India's motives ''were, are, and will always be peaceful,'' according to excerpts of the interview made available to Kyodo News by the English weekly which will carry it in a special issue to hit the stands Saturday. Vajpayee said his government never characterized the recently conducted nuclear tests as anything but peaceful. India's first nuclear test in 1974 was called a ''peaceful nuclear explosion,'' meant for the country's scientific progress rather than for weaponization. On the issue of signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Vajpayee said, ''There is no question of India accepting any treaty that is discriminatory in character. No one should have any delusions on this score.'' ''We have indicated our readiness to discuss certain provisions of the treaty on a reciprocal basis. But, taken as a whole, the CTBT is discriminatory because it allows nuclear weapon states with advanced technology capabilities to continue their nuclear weapons program, and so also does the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.'' On the effect of sanctions on India's economic recovery, Vajpayee declared ''sanctions cannot and will not hurt us.'' ''India will not be cowed by any such threats and punitive steps. India has the sanction of her own past glory and future vision to become strong -- in every sense of the term,'' the Indian prime minister said. While admitting the nuclear tests had entailed a price, Indians should not worry about it, he said. ''India has an immense reservoir of resources and strength. If we tap this reservoir, the benefit will be a hundred times more than any price we have to pay in the short term,'' Vajpayee said. India was earlier cautious, saying that only ''devices'' had been tested in the desert range in Pokhran in the northern state of Rajasthan. India exploded three nuclear devices Monday, taking both the country and the world by surprise. It followed up with two more tests Wednesday.