New Delhi: India Friday hit out at Pakistan’s nuclear programme, labelling Islamabad’s activities as “centred around clandestine” networks. New Delhi also took note of US President Donald Trump’s remark earlier this week that Islamabad has resumed testing of nuclear weapons
“Clandestine and illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pakistan’s history, that is centered around decades of smuggling, export control violations, secret partnerships, AQ Khan network and further proliferation,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told his weekly press briefing here.
He said India has always drawn the attention of the international community to these aspects of Pakistan’s record. “In this backdrop, we have taken note of President Trump’s comment about Pakistan’s nuclear testing.”
Trump, in an interview with CBS Sunday, had listed Pakistan as one of the countries actively testing nuclear weapons alongside Russia, China and North Korea. Moscow and Beijing have rejected his claims.
“We are going to test because they test (Russia and China)…And others test…Certainly North Korea’s been testing, Pakistan’s been testing,” Trump claimed in the CBS interview.
When the interviewer pushed back on Trump’s claims, the President asserted that the countries continue testing without informing anyone about it.
“You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing. They test way underground, where people don’t know exactly what’s happening. You feel a little bit of a vibration,” Trump said to CBS.
Last week, Trump directed the US military to resume nuclear weapons testing given that other countries, in particular Russia, have restarted testing of weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, announced the successful test of a cruise missile that is nuclear powered, giving it a longer range than available conventional technology that relies on the fuel load. The Burevestnik, the name of the Russian missile, travelled roughly 14,000 kilometres during tests on 21 October.
Putin announced Tuesday that Russia will now focus on building new cruise missiles based on the same technology with the aim of being three times faster.
Trump’s announcement was made hours before his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last week. However, Trump’s energy secretary Chris Wright claimed within hours that the nuclear tests will not involve any explosive detonations rather system tests.
The US last tested a nuclear weapon in 1992. It has relied since on computer simulations to ensure the reliability of its nuclear weapons arsenal. The US has largely observed the terms of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) despite not ratifying the agreement.
India last tested its own nuclear weapons in 1998 during Pokhran II. A few weeks later, towards the end of May 1998, Pakistan tested its own nuclear weapons.
There has been no public denial of Trump’s claims yet from Islamabad, however its sources reportedly told CBS that it would not be the first to resume weapons testing.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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