“The United States has confidence in Pakistan’s will and ability” to secure its nuclear arsenal, said Vedant Patel, a US State Department spokesman.
US diplomacy has said it has “confidence” in Pakistan’s ability to guarantee the security of its nuclear arsenal, after President Joe Biden’s remarks on the matter sparked strong reactions.
On the sidelines of a Democratic Party fundraiser in Los Angeles on Thursday, the US president referred to Pakistan as “one of the most dangerous countries in the world”, a country that has nuclear weapons but has “no cohesion”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was “surprised” by the statement and summoned the US ambassador to Islamabad on Saturday to protest, while Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said his country was a “responsible nuclear state”.
“The United States has confidence in Pakistan’s will and ability” to secure its nuclear arsenal, said Vedant Patel, a US State Department spokesman. “The United States has always considered a secure and prosperous Pakistan to be vital to American interests,” he added to reporters.
U.S. officials have long privately expressed concern about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in the event of a broad political shift, given the assistance provided by Pakistan’s military and intelligence services to the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Relations between the US and Pakistan have soured since the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 after two decades of war.
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