For anyone interested in nuclear politics, Asia has been the focus from the beginning: since the time of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everyone sat up and took notice of the power of the atom. Since then, there has been a mad scramble to harness it. And, almost always, countries have claimed that their nuclear programme was mainly for peaceful purposes.

The reason for the nuclear renaissance in Europe was the heavy dependence on Russian gas. But for Asia, power was not really the reason for going nuclear.