Malcolm Rifkind warns of risk of nuclear war

Speaking on the BBC Newsnight programme on 27 May, Sir Malcolm Rifkind warned of the dangers of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Sir Malcolm has previously served as both Defence and Foreign Secretary.

He said that he thought that the risks of nuclear war now were greater than at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, because there was a real danger of a land war between two nuclear armed rivals. His comments followed statements from the current Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, which also warned of the risk of conflict in South Asia and the possibility that this could result in a nuclear exchange.

During the Newsnight broadcast Sir Malcolm was asked if nuclear weapons would make the risk of war less likely. He replied that this was only partly true and that nuclear weapons made the situation more dangerous. The logic of this would be to undermine nuclear deterrence, so he then argued that the current situation between India and Pakistan was different from the Cold War between Russia and the US because there was no hot line between Islamabad and New Delhi and that there had not any danger of a land conflict between Russia and the US.

When he was Defence Secretary Rifkind made a speech at the Centre for Defence Studies in November 1993. This was the most detailed public statement on British nuclear weapons policy in recent times.