The Journal of South Asian Non-Proliferation

May, 2008


Editorial Staff
Maria Sultan, Editor-in-Chief
Bharath G, Research Analyst
 Nick Robson, Research & Production

 

 

 

The Journal of South Asian Non-Proliferation is an online compendium of non-proliferation related publications.
It is a periodic compilation of news, official statements, and expert analyses related to South Asian non-proliferation issues.

 


 


 

Supporting worldwide understanding of South Asian non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament issues.


The Journal of South Asian Non-Proliferation
is a Product of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI)


CONTENTS 

NUCLEAR RELATED ISSUES
Iran starts installing new nuclear centrifuges
PakistanÕs nuclear command stays the same
Reshaping the US-Indian Nuclear Deal to Lessen the Nonproliferation Losses
Analysis: India Eyes Kazakh energy
Iran-EU clash at start of NPT meeting
Israeli deputy PM says take all options to prevent nuke Iran

Iran steps into enemyÕs territory

 

MISSILE RELATED ISSUES
Army to acquire new lethal quick reaction missile
Space war would leave destructive legacy
Pakistan tests nuclear capable missile again: army:
Israel & India: New Allies
US Senator calls for Space=Based Interceptor Missiles


SUMMARIES

 

NUCLEAR RELATED ISSUES

     Iran starts installing new nuclear centrifuges TEHRAN (AFP) —Apr 8, 2008 - Iran on Tuesday said it had started work to install thousands of new centrifuges to enrich uranium at its main nuclear plant, angering world powers who fear Tehran wants to develop an atomic weapon. "Today, the phase for installing 6,000 new centrifuges at the facility in Natanz has started," the state broadcaster's website quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying at the atomic plant. His announcement came as Iran marked its "national day of nuclear technology" on the second anniversary of its first production of uranium sufficiently enriched to make atomic fuel.


 Pakistan's nuclear command stays unchanged: official Tue Apr 8, 2008 - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The command and control system for Pakistan's nuclear weapons will stay unchanged under the country's new government, made up of opponents of President Pervez Musharraf, an official said on Tuesday. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is overseen by a National Command Authority (NCA) headed by the president and with the prime minister as itÕs vice chairman. Key cabinet ministers and the heads of the army, navy and air force are also members of the NCA, which controls all aspects of the country's nuclear program, including deployment and, if ever necessary, the use of the weapons.

 


Reshaping the U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal to Lessen the Nonproliferation Losses: April 2008 For decades, IndiaÕs nuclear programs have been defined by two contradictory forces: the countryÕs vast ambitions and its limited uranium reserves. Its ambitions have led New Delhi to establish a significant civilian nuclear enterprise, to refuse to sign the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and to develop and test nuclear weapons. Its limited uranium reserves, on the other hand, have clearly slowed IndiaÕs nuclear energy development, most likely hampered its nuclear weapons program, and intertwined the two efforts to a high degree.

 


Analysis: India eyes Kazakh energy April 15 2008 - India may be a relative latecomer in the rush for Caspian hydrocarbon riches, but its booming economy and stable democratic traditions make it an attractive market for Central Asian energy producers, particularly Kazakhstan. Bishkek it adroitly seeking to diversify is markets, as Russia takes 33 percent of the country's exports. To bolster India's presence in the Caspian and Central Asian energy bazaar, Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari undertook a six-day official visit to the region. Successes were not long in coming. In April 5, during a visit to Turkmenistan, he signed a landmark memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation.

 


Iran-EU clash at start of NPT meeting: GENEVA (Reuters April 28 2008 -  - Iran clashed with the EU on Monday over its nuclear program, marring the start of global talks on how to salvage nuclear non-proliferation. In opening statements at the start of a two-week gathering on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the European Union and other western delegates cited Iran as symptomatic of the spread of technology which can be used to make atomic bombs. The EU condemned Iran's defiance of U.N. resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment and pressed it to clarify intelligence reports that it secretly studied ways of building atom bombs in violation of the NPT.


Israeli deputy PM says to take all options to prevent nuke Iran: JERUSALEM, April 28 (Xinhua) -- All the options are on the table to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said late Sunday before heading to Washington for strategic talks. Israeli daily the Jerusalem Post quoted Mofaz, who is also transportation minister, as accusing Iran of leading "the axis of evil" and posing "a threat to the entire world," and claiming the Islamic state "is up to its neck in the Middle East and is even trying to get a foothold in the West Bank."


       Iran steps into enemy's territory: This week, with his three-nation tour of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad will fortify Iran's regional ties and thus achieve a milestone in his administration's "Look East" foreign policy orientation. Accompanied by a high-ranking delegation, Ahmadinejad's trip transpires at a time of heightened US allegations of Iran's meddling in Iraq and serves as an antidote to the US policy of isolating Iran and castigating it as a rogue or pariah state. Too bad for the US, which now places the lion's share of the blame for its quagmire in Iraq on Iran's "destructive influence", two key US allies in the sub-continent, India and Pakistan, are now poised to deepen their economic, political, cultural and even geostrategic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, irrespective of Tehran's defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a halt in Iran's uranium-enrichment activities.


Missile & Space RELATED ISSUES

 

Army to acquire new lethal quick reaction missiles: New Delhi (PTI) April 25 2008: The Army has floated global tenders worth Rs 3,800 crore to acquire new range of quick reaction surface-to-air missiles to provide air cover to its rapid formations. The missile will have a range of 8 to 9 kms to strike air targets like low flying fighters, armed helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles, army sources said here. This is the third biggest army tender to be floated within a span of 60 days. Army had earlier invited Request For Proposals (RFP) for induction of heavy artillery towed, wheeled and tracked guns.

 


Space war would leave destructive legacy: 28 April 2008 - If war ever breaks out in space it's not the loss of individual satellites that will do the damage, but the debris this produces. It will stay in orbit and go on harming satellites for decades, according to two studies presented at the American Physical Society meeting in St Louis, Missouri, last week. A commission chartered by the US Congress in 2000 warned that the US military's dependence on satellites would mean a space attack could be crippling. Last year, China heightened fears of a space war by testing an anti-satellite weapon, while earlier this year the US destroyed one of its own defunct satellites using a missile.

 


Pakistan tests nuclear capable missile again: army: Islamabad (AFP) April 21, 2008 - Pakistan's military on Monday carried out a training launch of a long-range nuclear-capable missile which can hit targets deep in rival India, the second such test in three days, the military said. The Shaheen II, or Hatf VI, missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,280 miles) was launched from an undisclosed location by the Army Strategic Force Command, a military statement said.

 


    

Israel & India: New Allies: Friday April 25, 2008 Israeli arms experts are also seeking to sell the Arrow II anti-tactical ballistic missile system to India, which would require U.S. approval due to shared technology in the ATBM system. This would give India a significant missile defense system. The Green Pine radar system has already been sold to India which is a critical component of the overall ATBM system.

 


US Senator Calls For Space-Based Interceptor Missiles: Washington (RIA Novosti) Apr 10, 2008 - United States Senator Wayne Allard has called for interceptor missiles to be deployed on satellites in permanent orbit, so that the U.S. can rapidly respond to threats anywhere on Earth. Washington has not given serious consideration to deploying weapons in space since the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, nicknamed Star Wars. The idea was finally scrapped under Bill Clinton. "A layer of space-based interceptors would enable a global on-call missile defense capability that could produce a timely response to rapidly evolving situations and would enable the U.S. to be prepared for all types of threats that could develop out of unpredictable locations," the senator, who chairs the Senate Space Caucus, told the National Space Symposium in Colorado on Tuesday. The space-based interceptors would add to the existing missile defense system, which is already proving controversial. U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe have brought relations with Moscow to a post-Cold War low.



South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI)

The South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) is an independent think tank dedicated to promoting peace and stability in the South Asian region. SASSI contributes to the international debate on contemporary South Asian security issues through this and other substantive products.

Journal of South Asian Nonproliferation Issues

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