Washington, July 13: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri has said that Islamabad is interested in maintaining nuclear parity with India, as it does not have the firepower to match New Delhi on the convention weapons front.
Addressing the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace here, Kasuri was quoted by the Dawn as saying that Islamabad would be willing for a nuclear freeze with India if the latter agrees.
"Pakistan would like to retain the current nuclear parity with India because in conventional weapons, it could not match New Delhi, ‘aircraft to aircraft, tank to tank … so you cannot blame us for wanting to maintain minimum deterrence," Kasuri said.
He said that Pakistan would never object to a bilateral fissile material moratorium with India because its nuclear weapons programme is driven by the threat perception of its larger neighbour.
Pak wants 1000 MW civil nuke reactor from US
Pakistan is keen that the United States provide it with a 1000 megawatt civilian nuclear reactor, but if this does not materialise, Islamabad is willing to approach other countries for the same, said visiting Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.
Kasuri said that the US would eventually ‘begin to see the logic’ of offering a civilian nuclear deal to Pakistan similar to the one that it had offered India.
“Our position is well known. In our view a package approach would have been preferable in addressing legitimate civil nuclear needs of both India and Pakistan.Our case is self-evident... Since we’re already a declared nuclear power, I think it is only a matter of time, since the US is a friend of Pakistan, that it will begin to see the logic of our argument,” Kasuri said.
Pakistan, he said, was willing to assure the US that it would use the technology only for producing energy and ‘if they want, they can take back the spent fuel,’ which could be used for making weapons.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, July 13, 2006, 00:00