Vajpayee defends nuclear test despite poem on Hiroshima

0 Comments | Asian Political News, March 1, 1999

LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb. 22 Kyodo

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday defended his decision to carry out nuclear tests last year even though cabinet ministers at that time reminded him of a poem he had composed about the Japanese A-bombed city of Hiroshima. In the poem he had questioned the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. ''I was clearheaded when I took the decision to carry out the nuclear tests and I am very clear today'' about what to do, Vajpayee said at a reception in Lahore on Sunday, while explaining India's rationale behind the tests in May last year. He said the world was divided between those who possess nuclear weapons and those who do not, and while India stood for complete elimination of nuclear weapons, those who already had them continued to improve them, making them more destructive. ''Our bombs are not for aggression but only for defense purposes,'' he said and called upon Pakistan to work with India for a ''bomb-free world.'' Vajpayee arrived in Lahore on Saturday on the inaugural passenger bus service between the two countries and spent nearly 30 hours in Pakistan, holding talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on issues of peace and security. But at the reception, it was the poet Vajpayee who spoke, not the politician. He spoke about colonization, three wars that Pakistan and India have fought during the last 50 years and the realization that the two countries have been left behind in the development race. ''We have had hostility to our heart's full. Let us give an opportunity to friendship. One can change friends, not geography, not neighbors,'' Vajpayee said. Agreements signed by Vajpayee and Sharif on Sunday envisage a host of confidence-building measures on nuclear tests and missile launches. However, the two countries are still far from agreeing when to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Both have pledged to sign the treaty before September 1999 if certain conditions are fulfilled. ''The question was discussed but no decision has been taken,'' Vajpayee told a press conference Sunday. The two countries decided to carry on discussions on nonproliferation issues, reduce risks of a nuclear war from breaking out and continue a moratorium on conducting further nuclear tests. Both India and Pakistan have been facing international pressure to sign the test-ban treaty and cap missile development programs.