Indian nukes blunted 'strategic ambiguities' in region: Manmohan

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) is escorted by The Chief of Army Staff, General N.C. Vij (C) as he reviews a line of senior officers prior to a meeting of The Combined Commanders Conference at the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

"The exercise of the nuclear option by India helped remove potentially dangerous strategic ambiguities in the region," Singh told military commanders at a five-day brain-storming meeting in the Indian capital.

"In fashioning our nuclear doctrine we have been guided by the policy of minimum nuclear deterrence and no first use, underlined by restraint and responsibility."

India in May 1988 detonated a range of nuclear weapons including a thermonuclear bomb and then imposed a unilateral moratorium on further testing. The exercise prompted archrival Pakistan to carry out tit-for-tat atomic blasts the same month.

India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since 1947, insists the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction was aimed at thwarting the military ambitions of larger Asian neighbours.

The prime minister urged his top commanders to study the US-led war in Iraq but said India's military, which has a 14-billion-dollar annual budget, must be practical while giving shape to a new combat doctrine.

"Technology and strategy are mutually interactive," Singh said in an obvious reference to Iraq.

"Our military doctrine must have the inherent flexibility to imbibe technological changes and adapt them to our strategic needs (but) in this process availability of resources has to act as a reality check," he said.