Restoring Balance

A FEW days after the Chinese nuclear test of 16 October, 1964, as a deputy secretary in the Ministry of Defence, I wrote a note on the implications of the test for India and urged that India should initiate action to counter the Chinese nuclear capability.

It is to the credit of President George W Bush that he realised that a nuclear China, also the third largest market, on the way to becoming the second, upset the balance of power in Asia unless the Indian nuclear weapon capability was recognised and legitimised. Secondly, he realized that India, with a billion people, growing at 8 per cent, would make enormous demands on world oil and gas and exacerbate the problem of emission of green house gases.

This rectification of imbalance is not unfriendly to China. India did not take a hostile attitude towards China’s rise to power. In a larger sense, such a restoration of balance of power is good for China too and help in its progress towards democracy, which is inevitable.

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