Indian premier refuses to scrap nuclear weapons

India will not reciprocate on Pakistan’s offer to dismantle nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told parliament in New Delhi today.

Addressing a debate about the fresh peace overtures between the long-time South Asian rivals, he said Pakistan’s only target for nuclear weapons would be India, but India had other countries of concern.

“We don’t accept Pakistan’s proposal ... as Pakistan’s nuclear programme is India-specific,” Vajpayee said. “But we are concerned about other states as well.”

He reiterated that India had adopted a no-first-strike nuclear policy, but Pakistan had not.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said on Monday that Pakistan would get rid of its nuclear arsenal if India did so as well. Islamabad also suggested the bitter rivals make South Asia nuclear-free.

India has fought three wars with Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947.

India also fought a border war with China in 1962, although relations are warming rapidly between New Delhi and Beijing.

Pakistan and India declared themselves nuclear powers after detonating atomic bombs in 1998.

Neither country has opened its arsenal to international inspectors and it is not known exactly how many weapons they have.

The international community has been pressing both nations to improve relations to prevent what many fear could escalate into a nuclear confrontation.

Those fears peaked last summer when India and Pakistan amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along their frontier after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing a deadly suicide attack on India’s Parliament compound. Pakistan denied involvement.