It is not quite clear if the two-day nuclear security summit, which ended in Washington on Friday, has a focused message and programme to check the spread of “dirty bombs” by terrorists which is backed by adequate funding commitments by the United States. For India, in particular, it is hard to see if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile participation, pitched to perfection by the government’s media managers, has produced any significant benefits.
Indeed, it can be argued that US President Barack Obama ended up at his post-summit press conference equating India with Pakistan, although this country has prided itself on its nuclear rectitude while Pakistan’s efforts at manipulating the nuclear non-proliferation regime have been a matter of international concern for long.
After pointing to North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship, Mr Obama urged India and Pakistan in the same breath to cut back their store of nuclear bombs, overlooking the fact that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal of small bombs, or tactical battlefield nuclear weapons, is the fastest growing in the world.
India’s nuclear doctrine is premised on “no first use” while Pakistan’s doctrine explicitly focuses on first use against India, if need be. India’s so-called Cold Start doctrine, which assumes seizing territory in Pakistan with lightning speed as a hedge against a possible nuclear attack, has naturally attracted Islamabad’s anger.
It is hard to miss the hint in the US President’s words that India should rethink Cold Start as this sits uneasily with Pakistan. A national debate on this and related matters is indeed called for, especially in light of a recent formulation of foreign secretary S. Jaishankar that while India should “look East”, it should “think West”. Commentators are apt to see the top external affairs bureaucrat as a proxy for the PM in this matter.
The idea of a nuclear security summit began with Mr Obama and is likely to end with his tenure. The US leader had desired to draw the world’s attention to loose fissile materials and tactical devices falling into terrorist hands, particularly in a country like Pakistan, although this was not explicated.
That risk may have increased, not lessened over the years, with worrisome reports floating around that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba cadres are being posted at Pakistani nuclear sites. The rise of ISIS also raises worries. It appears that trained personnel guarding nuclear sites in Belgium — where massive bomb attacks occurred recently — have defected to the Islamic State. Mr Modi sought to emphasise in Washington that there was no deterrence against nuclear terrorism unless terrorism itself was checked in all its forms, but his seemed a voice in the wilderness.
