No threats of nuclear blackmail post-Pokhran: NSA

NEW DELHI: India faced nuclear threats between the 70s and 90s but after the 1998 Pokhran tests it has not faced any such "nuclear blackmail", National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said today.

"During the 70s, 80s and 90s, we faced explicit or implicit nuclear threats on several occasions designed to change our foreign policy course," he said.

"Fortunately, our leaders of those times were strong- willed and refused to be deflected. Since we tested and declared our nuclear weapons in 1998, we have not faced any such threats of nuclear blackmail," he said.

Menon was addressing the Sardar Patel Memorial lecture organised by All India Radio here.

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister, India carried out nuclear tests in 1998 in which atomic weapons were tested in the Pokhran firing range.