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PM welcomes Bush's initiative

In his first comments on Bush's offer last week, Vajpayee said India welcomed his suggestions to move away from further development of offensive nuclear technologies and his offer of consultations in the context of New Delhi's desire to move towards lightening the shadow of nuclear terror under which the world lived today.

His remarks came at a function in New Delhi to present awards to defence scientists on the third anniversary of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear blasts being observed as National Technology Day.

Vajpayee said, "We believe that a genuine process of consultations, including nuclear and non-nuclear countries and taking into account existing arrangements in the security architecture, can promote the search for a stable new global security framework".

His remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. The US official is scheduled to meet the prime minister.

Recalling that Friday was the third anniversary of the "momentous day" when India conducted nuclear tests in Pokhran, the prime minister said, "The world has a much better appreciation of our perceptions of our security environment which guided that decision."

"Political and economic pressures are now gradually giving way to a more pragmatic understanding of ground realities," Vajpayee said, adding that India had now demonstrated it was a responsible nuclear power, "which is neither a proliferation threat nor an exporter of sensitive nuclear or missile technology".

Vajpayee said India believed that a credible minimum nuclear deterrent was a basic security umbrella which "we owe to our people".

At the same time, he made it clear that New Delhi retained its firm commitment to universal and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament.

Aafter presenting this year's prestigious Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) awards, he told the country's top defence scientists and engineers the government was committed to the "progressive expansion" of the weapon system-making base in the country.

"The nation acknowledges their dedication and takes pride in their work," the prime minister said, adding that it was a national goal to progressively increase indigenous content of "our weapons systems to restrict external dependence in times of crisis".

The go-ahead to the recent successful test of the Agni II, the development of the Light Combat Aircraft and the remotely piloted vehicle Nishant were the signs of the "same determination", Vajpayee said, describing these events as a "triumph of national determination over external hurdles".

He said the country's defence scientists and research environment had recently been "shackled by technology denial regimes and sanctions", declaring that hurdles had led to Indian scientists developing afresh technologies available elsewhere.

"As a matter of principle, our nation has preferred this honourable option to that of stealing technologies," Vajpayee said.

Sounding a word of caution, the prime minister told the scientists that implementation delays could seriously undermine weapons' projects.

Union Defence Minister Jaswant Singh was more forthright, calling on DRDO to close programmes that had outlived relevance.

On the supply of armaments and technology from abroad, Vajpayee said, "We have a bitter experience of such dependence in the past," adding, "My government is committed to provide the resources needed to support well equipped defence machine with a self-reliant military-industrial complex".

Cautioning the country's defence scientists to keep abreast of winds of change in the technological field, he said that any alteration of global security architecture could entail an entire new range of verification and defensive technologies.

Vajpayee told DRDO scientists to develop close co-ordination with the armed forces for creation of a strong perspective planning base to prepare for alternative future security scenarios.

Patting the scientists, Jaswant Singh said the testing of the longer range Agni II in operational configuration had provided the country a credible delivery system.

He said the production order for the indigenous main battle tank Arjun was under execution and orders from the army for the indigenous unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle Nishant would be placed shortly.

Elaborating on the Nishant programme, scientific adviser to the defence minister, Dr V K Atre, said the DRDO, for the past few weeks, had been holding user trials for the army and disclosed that in the first instance the army had ordered 12 Nishant UAVs with three launchers at a cost of Rs 70 crore.

On the LCA, the defence minister said the aircraft undergoing flight tests would be inducted before the end of the decade. On reports of the country's defence scientists moving abroad, Singh said to overcome this, there was a need to evolve a separate compensation package.

Fourteen top scientists and DRDO establishments were presented awards by the prime minister on the occasion. Scientist, Dr K G Narayanan, won the Technology Leadership Award for developing the fly-by-wire control system for the LCA and avionics for the SU-30MKI.

The Aeronautical Development Agency bagged the Silicon Trophy, which was received by its programme director Dr Kota Harinarayana. The Titanium Trophy was won by the DRDO's Gwalior unit for outstanding contributions in life sciences.

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