India will retain minimum credible nuclear deterrent 8212; PM

The Prime Minister said two years after the Pokharan blasts, the situation has changed dramatically for India with almost the entire world having better appreciation of the country8217;s security needs.

Vajpayee said his Government had gone ahead with Operation Shakti8217; based on assessment of the country8217;s security needs.

quot;Also, we had full knowledge that had India not conducted nuclear tests in May, 1998, our neighbour would have certainly done so,quot; the Prime Minister said.

He said the country had displayed exemplary unity and solidarity in the face of harsh sanctions imposed after the Pokharan blasts and it was because of this unity that economic sanctions failed to have impact on us.

Vajpayee declared that after two years, India was now recognised, both internally and externally, as a much stronger nation and said the credit for this went to the entire nation and not to the Government alone and certainly not to any individual.

Vajpayee assured the international community that even as India retains its minimum credible nuclear deterrent, quot;we shall continue to vigorously strive for complete global nuclear disarmamentquot;. He said it was extremely disheartening that in the past two years the established nuclear powers have not moved in the direction of disarmament.

On the internal situation, he said the situation in the North-East had improved considerably. Expressing deep appreciation for the excellent work done by his ministerial colleagues, he said quot;our Government is stable and is working hard to implement our policies and programmes to make India more strong and prosperousquot;.