India rejects US demand to define minimum credible nuclear deterrent

New Delhi, Apr 8 (UNI) India today rejected the US demand asking it to ''further define'' its minimum credible nuclear deterrent and said the term is ''self-explanatory and requires no further elucidation''.

Reacting to US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher's statement yesterday that the US had pushed for India to further define its minimum credible deterrent, an External Affairs Ministry spokeman said.

''Our attention has been drawn to a speech by the visiting US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher....Credible minimum deterrent is a self-explanatory term that requires no further elucidation. It reflects our response to a dynamic and changing security environment,'' the spokesman said.

''We note that at a recent US Congressional hearing, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice herself noted that the Indian strategic programme is more a factor of the military and political factors which India confronts,'' the spokesman said.

The United States had expressed confidence yesterday that the Civil Nuclear deal could come through within a few months but asked India to ''further define'' the minimum credible nuclear deterrent as it was absolutely necessary for decreasing tensions in the region.

Speaking at a seminar here on 'The India-US friendship:Where We Were and Where We Are Going', Mr Boucher had said the successive US administrations had pushed for India to further define its minimum credible deterrent, ''as we continue that today.'' ''We understand the complexity of this task having spent 40 years in discussion with the former Soviet Union over our nuclear weapons programme. We also understand that such discussions are complicated by China's intensions and by Iran's energetic pursuit of technologies that underlie nuclear weapons. But nevertheless we see this as an absolute necessary step towards decreasing tensions in Asia,'' he had said.

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