New Delhi, May 11: Former foreign secretaries J.N. Dixit and S.K. Singh on Monday welcomed the nuclear tests conducted in Pokharan as a "positive step."

Mr Dixit said the tests sent a clear signal that we are a confirmed nuclear power" adding at the tests were responsive to India's national security interests, consolidating India's "regional political status and laying the foundation for a strategic equilibrium in the region."

He said India had been left t with "less and less diplomatic and international law space" - and through these tests we had, sent a signal to the world that we should be taken seriously. Both agreed that there were bound to be criticism from the US and other western powers, but Mr Singh, speaking to The Asian Age from Pune, said he did not think there would be any long-term negative fallout. "In the long run, there will be very little repercussion, in the short run there may be noises, finances stopped, but nothing permanent." On sanctions against which may follow from the US, Mr Dixit said the US President could waive these sanctions if he felt imposing them would not be conducive US national interests.

The former foreign secretaries reiterated that India had not broken any international treaty it was a signatory to. "India is no party to the NPT or the CTBT," Mr Dixit said. On the possible Chinese reaction, he said: "The Chinese have always held that national security is sovereign internal matter." Reacting to Pakistan's accusation that India was "sucking' it into an arms race, Mr Dixit said we must forget that it was Pakistan which started the nuclear race in 1972.