‘Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s views on the use of nuclear weapons could very well have averted a global tragedy in the context of the Ukraine war’ CIA director Bill Burns said.
“I think it’s also been very useful that Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi in India have also raised their concerns about the use of nuclear weapons as well. I think that’s also having an impact on the Russians,” Bill Burns said in an interview with PBS.
“I think the sabre-rattling is meant to intimidate. We don’t see any clear evidence today of plans to use tactical nuclear weapons,” he added.
Notably, the CIA Director’s remark comes in the backdrop of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement that the conflict is ‘going to take a while’.
The Russian premiere also warned of the ‘increasing’ threat of nuclear war. He noted that ‘Russia will fight by all available means at its disposal,’ and that he considered Moscow’s nuclear arsenal as a ‘deterrent rather than a provocation,’ as per CNN.
“As for the idea that Russia wouldn’t use such weapons first under any circumstances, then it means we wouldn’t be able to be the second to use them either – because the possibility to do so in case of an attack on our territory would be very limited,” CNN quoted President Putin as saying in his address at the meeting of Russia’s Human Rights Council at the Kremlin.
PM Modi, in a telephonic conversation with Russian President Putin on December 16, reiterated his call for dialogue and diplomacy as the ‘only way forward’ in the context of the Russia and Ukraine conflict, according to the statement released by PMO.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘today’s era is not of war’ statement has been reiterated multiple times at various global events in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
