India, with its large economy and appeal to investors, had concluded that it could ride out sanctions when it decided to proceed with tests, officials said. Nor are the dangers confined to weapons. The core of the French view is that the West must start paying more attention to the complaints of India, which has often been ignored when it accused China of hostile policies. This suggestion that Indian nuclear ambitions are driven by a national security calculus or even national feeling of insecurity is contested by some experts, who see both India and Pakistan falling into the grip of ethnic and sectarian chauvinism - a mood hardly susceptible to international conciliation. Beijing was worried that it would be blamed for goading India to go nuclear,'' a French government specialist said.
Indian officials offer a disquieting picture of their country being quietly surrounded by China.
To the east in neighboring Tibet, China appears to have created missile emplacements that could only be aimed at India. To the west, Pakistan has been steadily supplied by China with key components for nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. So far, Beijing has refused any dialogue or other steps to reassure India. For example, China is the only nuclear power that has not cut its arsenal since the Cold War's end and instead continues to expand its arsenal. That unspoken threat is liable to convince India to develop long-range missiles of the sort that it does not now have.