'Nuclear non-proliferation treaty was discriminatory'

WELLINGTON, TN: President APJ Abdul Kalam on Saturday noted that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty was discriminatory.

Addressing the students and faculty members of Defence Service Staff college here, Kalam said though the US and its allies and Soviet Block accumulated vast quantities of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, there seems to the some sort of control on them due to international conventions and treaties.

'Despite the noise made against nuclear proliferation, the developed countries were not likely to reach the state of zero nuclear weapon under the NPT', he said.

In the next two decades antiballistic missile defence systems were going to be the major force, after which space systems and strategic military satellites would come in a big way, to guard against nuclear weapons attack, he said.

As far as technology control regimes were concerned, the only answer was through self-reliance in critical technology area. The motive behind technology denial and NPT and MCTR was to control the market forces and gain domination, he said.

The President said the key to becoming strong nation was to have economic and military strength. 'India is capable of technological advancement'.

'Starting with the Pokhran explosion in 1974 and the Green Revolution, we have developed expertise in launch vehicle technology, remote sensing satellites, communication satellites, meteorological satellites, strategic missile systems, battle tanks, electronic warfare systems, light combat aircraft, naval systems and state-of the art C41
systems. There is a need to integrate all the technologies and build indigenous systems which will meet the needs of the Defence services of the country', he said.

Kalam said the future officers of the Armed Forces, particularly young officers have an important role to play. 'The new role is to equip ourselves to combat the technology
driven warfare. The whole war environment will be network centric warfare and it could be electronically controlled combined with space encounters, deep sea encounters and
ballistic missiles encounters', he said.

Kalam said 'the winner of future warfare will be officers, who can visualise the strength of the enemy, not based on the previous war but based on the current capabalities and technological advancements in the global scenario'.

He said the Armed Force officers 'will have to get trained in virtual reality based simulated warfronts of all the terrains and all extreme conditions of warfare. Walk through during a space attack, chemical attack, nuclear attack and electronic encounters need to be visualised and proper counter measure needs to he practiced'.

'The future battle field would require a synergised team work with joint services operation and use of land, aero space and ocean as important war threatres. The future soldiers will be knowledge workers', he said.

'Above all, winners will be soldiers in the frontlies carrying maximum payload of weapon, life support systems and communication kits with minimum weight. Electronic warfare- computers with intelligent software will fight in the place of many strategic systems. They will be more powerful-which will travel at the speed of light-to destroy the economic capabilit of the country exceeding the power of nuclear weapons, he said.

Kalam said the national secutiy 'is born out of two important components. One is the economic growth and prosperity; second one is the capability to defend the nation
against all types of threats. India is progressing on both fronts'.

He said 'there will always be a dynamic environment along our borderrs needing eternal vigilance by all the wings of the armed forces. You should remember that the national
development and national security have to go together'.