India's N-programme needs to be transparent: Chinese scholar

A leading Chinese scholar has demanded that India should make its atomic programme "transparent" and questioned its status as a legitimate nuclear weapon state, in a commentary that comes in the midst of intense media focus on reports of Chinese incursions along the border.

"The issue is that India is not only a country that wants to develop civilian nuclear power, but also a nation that has developed nuclear weapons," says Zhao Gancheng, director of the influential Centre of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.

"Thus others are concerned not about whether India could develop civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity, but whether it is or should be seen as a legitimate nuclear weapons state (NWS)," Zhao says in a commentary in the state- run Global Times, a sister publication of the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, People's Daily.

As a non-signatory state to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), India's extensive search for sources of nuclear materials has attracted attention worldwide, he writes.

While India wants to develop nuclear programmes, the potential for them to include nuclear weapon improvement in both quality and quantity naturally leads to "suspicion," he says.

"At the end of the day, India cannot be the nation that triggers or worsens any possible arms race in South Asia. For that simple reason, India must make its nuclear plans transparent to the international community."