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Here is full speech : Why Do We Need Nuclear Weapons? by Shivshankar Menon, National Security Advisor at ICWA Conference on GND, 21 August 2012

Shri SM Krishna, EAM,
Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, MP,
Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi,
Shri Rajiv Bhatia, DG ICWA,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies, gentlemen and young friends.

Thank you for asking me to speak at the National Outreach Conference on Global Nuclear Disarmament. This is a laudable initiative, bringing together the young and the old just after Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary to discuss a topic that must concern us all.

You must be wondering what the National Security Advisor is doing at a meeting to celebrate global nuclear disarmament and the contemporary relevance of the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan for Nuclear Disarmament.

Rajiv Gandhi was the inspiration and author of what remains the only practical plan for universal non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament. He was also the one who made it possible for India to convert her undoubted technical capability in atomic energy into a nuclear weapon programme.

I therefore thought that I would try to explain how and why India is the only nuclear weapon state which is a full throated advocate of global nuclear disarmament. It also the only nuclear weapon state with a practical plan, involving timeframes and legally binding obligations, to achieve a nuclear weapon free world.

So why does India have nuclear weapons? For two reasons. One is the contribution that it makes to our security in an uncertain and anarchic world. There is no question that these weapons have done so, to the extent that they were expected to when we decided to become a nuclear weapon state. On at least three occasions before 1998 other powers used the explicit or implicit threat of nuclear weapons to try and change India’s behaviour. That they did not succeed was because of the hard-headed leadership we were fortunate to have. Since we became a declared nuclear weapons state in 1998 we have not faced such threats. So the possession of nuclear weapons has, empirically speaking, deterred others from attempting nuclear coercion or blackmail against India.

Please note that from the very beginning we made it clear that our nuclear weapons were weapons of deterrence and not, I repeat not, war-fighting weapons. This is why our nuclear doctrine provides for no first use by India of these weapons. These weapons are for use against a nuclear attack on India. Unlike certain other nuclear weapon states, India’s nuclear weapons were not meant to redress a military balance, or to compensate for some perceived inferiority in conventional military terms, or to serve some tactical or operational military need on the battlefield.

The other reason why India chose to have nuclear weapons was in order to promote real nuclear disarmament. We spent twenty four years after our first peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974 urging and working for universal nuclear disarmament and a nuclear weapon free world. We did so out of the conviction that a nuclear weapon free world would enhance our security and that of the rest of the world. But sadly this was a conviction and view that obtained much lip sympathy and verbal support but was actually flouted in practice with increasing impunity by others. And when the division of the world into nuclear weapon haves and have-nots was sought to be made permanent in the nineties it became clear that possession of nuclear weapons was necessary if our attempts to promote a nuclear weapon free world were to be taken seriously and have some effect.

Here again, our decision has been validated empirically. Today, as you will no doubt hear from Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar and others, many more countries and peoples are willing to support and work for a nuclear weapon free world than ever before. And when President Obama visited India in November 2010, the Joint Statement committed both our countries to working for this noble goal, speaking of “a shared commitment to a world without nuclear weapons” giving “them a responsibility to forge a strong partnership to lead global efforts for non-proliferation and universal and non-discriminatory global nuclear disarmament in the 21st century”.

So the apparent paradox of India as a nuclear weapon state advocating a nuclear weapon free world is simply explained. We do think that we would be more secure in a world that is truly free of nuclear weapons. But until we arrive at that happy state, we have no choice, and a responsibility towards our own people, to have nuclear weapons to protect them from nuclear threats.

The question remains of how we can arrive at that state, of how we can make the world free of nuclear weapons. The only feasible and practical plan that I know of to arrive at that condition is the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan. Others will no doubt speak to you about the features of the Plan, of how it would reconcile the demands of morality, security and survival in the nuclear age, and how it could lead the world into a future without nuclear weapons.

Over time, whether in the UNGA in 2006 or thereafter, in work such as that done in the informal group that Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar headed, the Plan has been refined and brought up to date in the light of developments. But in its basics there is really little change. It is truly remarkable how despite great and unprecedented changes in the world the basics of the Rajiv Gandhi Plan remain valid even today, offering hope and a way forward in an uncertain and harsh world.
With these few words I wish you every success in your deliberations.