The Bush Administration's point man for South Asia, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, who created a major controversy while in New Delhi recently with his call for India to further define its credible minimum nuclear deterrent saying it is absolutely necessary for alleviating tensions in Asia, has described it as a 'mini-storm in a mini-teacup'.
Following reports of Boucher's alleged remarks, Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran asserted that India has no obligation to define its credible minimum nuclear deterrent to anybody, saying, 'what our credible minimum deterrent would be is really for India to decide'. Saran also said that Boucher had not brought up this issue during their conversations.
Boucher, in a interaction with the media on Thursday, to review his trip to South and Central Asia, when asked by rediff.com to elucidate on the controversy, said, "What I felt was that some people misread my remarks and distorted questions asked, creating a mini-storm in a mini-teacup."
"But, no, I think, it's long been a position of the US that we think that all the parties in the region need to consider strategic stability. We've welcomed the discussions that the Indians and Pakistanis have had on that subject.We've had our own discussions with each of the parties on the questions of strategic stability in the region," he said.
Boucher argued that the US believes 'those are worth pursuing and as part of that, we do think it's important to talk about, think through more, some of the doctrine involved'.
He said this was as far as he went in his speech in New Delhi and that no one should get too excited about a restatement of the interest and the position the United States has long held.
Complete coverage: Indo-US nuclear tango