India's leading nuclear and military scientists yesterday said any trade sanctions would not affect India's nuclear weapons programme. "Sanctions will not affect us in this field," Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the architect of India's guided missile programme, said.
The United States and Japan imposed substantial trade sanctions after India carried out a series of five nuclear tests last week, one involving a thermo-nuclear device.
"Our nuclear programme is 100 per cent self-reliant. Nobody can throttle us technologically anymore," Mr Kalam said. "We were refused a super computer sometime back. Today we have it. We were also refused cryogenic technology. That will be ready in a few years.
"Once a challenge is given we have to do the job," he told a news conference packed with Western and Indian journalists.
The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said last week India was ready to face up to sanctions for its five nuclear tests, which he said were conducted after much deliberation.
President Clinton last week ordered tough sanctions on India. Japan, India's largest donor, joined in by suspending its 3.5 billion yen (£18.5 million) annual grant aid and development aid estimated at more than £700 million. Sweden cancelled a three-year aid agreement with India worth £85 million soon after Wednesday's tests and the Norwegian government said it was considering cuts in foreign aid.
However, the G8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - declined to impose joint sanctions yesterday.
In Washington, India's ambassador to the US, Mr Naresh Chandra, denied that New Delhi had deceived the United States about its nuclear programme. "We have been having a strategic dialogue with our friends in the US . . . I don't think the Indian side ever misled the US side," he said, adding: "The exercise of the nuclear option is non-negotiable."
His comments came as officials in Washington continued to criticise what they described as a surreptitious nuclear weapons program by New Delhi.
"I think [there has been] on the part of the Indians a deliberate campaign of deception since March. They have said they'd exercise restraint," the US National Security adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, told NBC at the weekend.