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Indian nukes playing positive role: Russian lawmaker
Moscow,Nov 23: Russia believes that Indian nuclear weapons are playing a `positive role` in ensuring peace and stability in South Asia, a top Russian lawmaker has said.
Moscow,Nov 23: Russia believes that Indian nuclear weapons are playing a "positive role" in ensuring peace and stability in South Asia, a top Russian lawmaker has said.
"As a militaryman, I can assert that as such nuclear weapons are a big evil and a great trouble, but India's nuclearisation was based on dire necessity to ensure national security," Chief of the Russian State Duma's Defence Committee, General (Retd) Andrei Nikolayev said today.
"Russia believes that a war in the region would have been inevitable if India had not exercised its nuclear option. To a certain degree, they (Indian nukes) are playing a positive role," Nikolayev said.
The 53-year-old Nikolayev is a four-star general. He said on the eve of his visit to India to attend a seminar on Indo-Russian Strategic Partnership in the 21st century, Nikolayev stressed that Russia is bound by its non- proliferation commitments and has never helped New Delhi in its nuclear weapons programme, which he described as "purely indigenous". Bureau Report
"Russia believes that a war in the region would have been inevitable if India had not exercised its nuclear option. To a certain degree, they (Indian nukes) are playing a positive role," Nikolayev said.
The 53-year-old Nikolayev is a four-star general. He said on the eve of his visit to India to attend a seminar on Indo-Russian Strategic Partnership in the 21st century, Nikolayev stressed that Russia is bound by its non- proliferation commitments and has never helped New Delhi in its nuclear weapons programme, which he described as "purely indigenous". Bureau Report