WASHINGTON: A US State Department spokesman said on Monday that “Pakistan was providing the necessary security for the country’s nuclear weapons.”
“We have said before that we believe that the Government of Pakistan can and does provide the necessary security that they need to for that arsenal,” Spokesman John Kirby said when asked to comment on a statement by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in which he observed that US needs to stay in Afghanistan to secure nuclear weapons in Afghanistan.
The Security, Strategic Stability and Nonproliferation (SSS&NP) working group is one of the groups where discussions were held recently as part of the Pak-US Strategic Dialogue Process which held its ministerial meeting in Washington last week. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz represented Pakistan at the meeting.
In a Joint Statement, issued after the meeting, the United States acknowledged Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to harmonize its strategic trade controls with those of the multilateral export control regimes.