PARIS: Revealing the real reason behind the speed with which America and Britain are expanding and reorganising their nuclear capability east of Suez, the American delegation to this week’s NATO Council meeting in Paris is understood to have stated that China is fairly near Hydrogen bomb and in possession of considerably advanced technology. China’s emergence as an advanced nuclear power also prompted the Labour Gover­nment’s decision to switch a major part of Britain’s V-bomber force to the Indian Ocean and extend an invitation to Premier Kosygin to visit London in the hope that the Soviet Union may eventually participate in a nuclear umbrella over India.

American disclosures are based on studies carried out by a body in Washington headed by Roswell Gilpatric, former US Deputy Secretary for Defence. British experts have been collaborating with the Gilpatric group. Another source of information on China’s nuclear capability furnished by the American delegation to the NATO Council meeting is Prof Seitaro Nakmura, Tokyo University’s leading nuclear physicist. Anglo-American plans for nuclear defence were given added urgency by Premier Shastri’s recent visit to London during which he asked for protection against the Chinese nuclear bomb.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014