Is NPT Membership as a Nuclear Weapon State an Option for India?

Rajiv Nayan
Dr Rajiv Nayan is Senior Research Associate at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. He has been working with the Institute since 1993, where he… Continue reading Is NPT Membership as a Nuclear Weapon State an Option for India? read more
Volume:31
Issue:6
Articles

Today, it is necessary for India to respond to the current crisis of the NPT and weigh its options vis-a-vis the Treaty. This paper is an attempt to explore answers to the question of what ought to be India’s policy in the light of the new nuclear reality. It analyses three policy options that India could pursue and concludes that India must strive to join the NPT as a nuclear weapon country, because joining the non-proliferation regime by evading the NPT is likely to prove costly and is also unlikely to remove destabilizing irritants.