For peace lovers it was a strange and bewildering sight: people dancing and cheering in the streets of New Delhi and Islamabad because their governments bad exploded an atomic bomb, politicians bragging about the nuclear capabilities of their countries, the press going wild over the achievements of their scientific institutions. Achievements? In Europe, people had lived for decades under the threat of a nuclear holocaust, they had danced and cheered when the Cold War ended. Now another threat of nuclear war, this time between two-of the most populous, but also the most impoverished nations of the world? How could anybody be happy about the news of the successful nuclear tests? Wasn?t it absurd that the masses were cheering when their governments were spending the little money they had on the military and on expensive atomic gadgets instead of combating poverty in their countries?
The political reactions were quick to follow. A day after India had exploded its first bombs under the Rajasthan desert. In a concerted action, the EU and the G7 countries as well as the World Bank suspended all new loans for the country. Pakistan met the same fate, after it conducted its own atomic test series a few days later. Development cooperation with the two countries has thus been dealt a severe blow. In the last 50 years, both states have been important recipients of World aid.