October 10, 2012
Many of our partner institutions are represented here today, and I want to convey in particular the best wishes and regards from my co-director, Professor Leopoldo Nuti at Roma Tre, who cannot be here for health reasons.
Many of these findings are necessarily preliminary and incomplete. They point to the need for further collaborative research. India’s role in the Cold War, in particular its nuclear past, remain largely unexplored, and much of the existing literature is based on Western sources: Did Jawaharlal Nehru favor nuclear weapons? Why didn’t India undertake its nuclear weapon test before the NPT came into force? Was the 1974 Peaceful Nuclear Explosion intended to demonstrate India’s nuclear weapon capability, or was it a genuine exercise for development purposes?
Today’s seminar will address some of these important questions, and in conclusion, I wish us all a successful and rewarding day together. May it be the first of many such workshops on nuclear history here to come, and may it contribute to deeper understanding and better public policy here and around the world. Thank you.