Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India is now accepted as a responsible nuclear power' that was published in Newsband

India is now accepted as a responsible nuclear power

India got admission into the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime, as its 42nd participating member. Wassenaar Arrangement strengthens India’s credentials as a responsible nuclear power. ndia is now formally accepted as a responsible nuclear power.

The Wassenaar Arrangement is meant to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations.

Delhi has to do most of the heavy lifting to gain a seat at various global high tables. The Wassenaar Arrangement membership is a lesson on the need for quiet diplomacy in sensitive nuclear issues. India had also made an attempt to gain entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which failed because of China. China is not a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement. The Wassenaar Arrangement will make it possible for India to enable access to critical technologies in the defence and space sectors.

Today, most of the countries around the world, except China and Pakistan accept India as a matured and responsible country, and as a rising global power. The negative actions of China can be attributed to its rivalry with India and love for Pakistan. China also aims to be a single global power from Asia, and tries to negate India's rising status because China is scared that influential India can put hurdles to its march to Asian and Global dominating power.

India's legacy entails peaceful coexistence. In consonance with this historical principle and philosophy, we believe in the use of clean energy and nuclear energy is one such good example of it. China has always been stonewalling our efforts to rise up to the global stage and take our position and also in those cases, where we can be held back by directly vetoing Pakistan supported militants to be saint like. It did the same in NSG and it would do the same, given opportunity. Now we should concentrate on the Australia group whose membership is equally important. And then we can and will get into NSG

Since India is assertive in its role recently, it’s gaining importance. Quiet diplomacy (or silence) doesn’t help in this multi polar world. India is third in the world in the number of nuclear reactors being installed, at six, while China is leading at 20.