Thaindian News

Beijing, April 27 (IANS) India is “likely to resume its nuclear tests”, the online edition of China’s main state-run daily said, asking China and other countries to sharpen “vigilance on India’s every manoeuvre”.

An editorial in the online edition of People’s Daily Wednesday said only North Korea and Iran were cast negatively in the international nuclear discourse.

“But the fact is that behind the scene there exists a super antagonist in the US-produced nuclear soap opera, and it is India,” said the newspaper in the editorial titled “Possible, India resumes nuclear test?”

The online edition is run by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974 — and again in 1998.

“The reason why India refused to sign the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) is that it disagreed with the fact that only five large countries of the world use the NPT to monopolize the right for possessing nuclear arms,” it said.

The editorial said: “India has long been desperately trying to step over the (nuclear) threshold, and gain the international recognition of being a nuclear power.

“In the conditioning of India, equipped with nuclear weapons, it would boost confidence in dealing with Pakistan and pluck up courage to counteract China whom it has long taken as `a slumbering threat’ at its bedside.”

It added that the international situation appeared to favour India, saying the unrest in the Arab world was taking attention away from the Indian sub-continent.

“And perhaps, once the Middle East situation further exacerbates, the US would risk helping India become a nuclear-weapon state. Considering this, India is likely to resume its nuclear tests. For this, China and all the neighbours should sharpen their vigilance on India’s every manoeuvre.”