![\"\"\/](\"http:\/\/www.cnic.jp\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Agni-V_no_first_use-600x600.jpg\")
CNIC Statement on Weakening of India\u2019s No First Use Policy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
September 10, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NPO Citizens\u2019 Nuclear Information Center <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On August 16, India\u2019s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted,\n\u201cIndia \u2026 remain[s] firmly committed to the doctrine of \u2018No First Use\u2019. India\nhas strictly adhered to this doctrine. What happens in future depends on the\ncircumstances.\u201d The tweet came as Singh toured Kashmir, a northern region\nclaimed by both India and Pakistan, and is seen as a statement aimed as a warning\nto Pakistan during increasing tensions in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s nuclear doctrine,\nas announced in 2003, includes a declaration of the No First Use (NFU) of\nnuclear weapons, stating that \u201cnuclear retaliation to a first strike will be\nmassive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage,\u201d and that \u201cin the event of\na major attack against India \u2026 by biological or chemical weapons, India will\nretain the option of retaliating with nuclear weapons.\u201d Nevertheless, including\nthis latest tweet by Defense Minister Singh, top officials in the Indian\ngovernment have repeatedly made statements that suggest a weakening of the\nnuclear NFU policy in recent years. During the general election campaign in 2019,\nPrime Minister Modi said, \u201cIndia has quit the policy of being scared of\nPakistani threats \u2026 Else, every other day they announced, \u2018We have a nuclear\nbutton, we have a nuclear button.\u2019 So what do we have then? Are those being\nsaved for Diwali?\u201d (Diwali is the Hindu\nfestival of lights.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\nconsidering whether one can trust countries that have declared NFU, it is\nextremely important to have proof that the policy will be sustained into the\nfuture. In that sense, if top officials state that NFU may be reviewed, trust\nin that policy will fade. If the situation is that \u201cWhat happens in\nfuture depends on the circumstances,\u201d this is the equivalent of India having\nalready revised its NFU policy. With the present greatly increased tension over\nnuclear weapons in South Asia, a policy shift of this nature is a matter for\ndeep concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\n2017, Japan concluded the Agreement between\nthe Government of Japan and the Government of the Republic of India for\nCooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy for cooperation concerning\nnuclear power with India, a nuclear power that is not a member state to the\nTreaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). A great many\ncitizens, including we at CNIC, have spoken up to strongly oppose the Agreement\nas an obstacle to non-proliferation and the abolition of nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One very serious issue with the Agreement was how to have India, a nuclear power, guarantee peaceful use and non-proliferation. The governments of the two countries therefore signed a \u201cNote on Views and Understanding,<\/a>\u201d in which the Japanese government declared that it may exercise its right to suspend the Agreement if India deviated from the \u201cSeptember 5 statement<\/a>\u201d (pledging unilateral and autonomous suspension of nuclear weapons testing, non-proliferation, NFU, separation of military and civil nuclear facilities, and others) issued in 2008. The Indian government reconfirmed the 2008 statement. Furthermore, in the Diet debate on the Agreement, when asked what the government would do in the case that there was a change in the NFU policy, the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time, Fumio Kishida, replied, \u201cIf there is any change in the content of the basic documents, we will exercise our rights\u201d (Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee, May 12, 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nJapanese government claims that the conclusion of this Agreement \u201cwill lead to\nthe substantive participation of India in the non-proliferation framework.\u201d Now\nis the time for the Japanese government to use this card. The Agreement should\nbe suspended and India should be informed of the deep concerns of the citizens\nof Japan and the world, who yearn for peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (End)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CNIC Statement on Weakening of India\u2019s No First Use Policy September 10, 2019 NPO Citizens\u2019 Nuclear Information Center On August 16, India\u2019s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, \u201cIndia \u2026 remain[s] firmly committed to the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,40,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cnic-statements","category-international","category-nonproliferation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4577,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions\/4577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}