LAHORE: Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal now totals more than 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years in one of the world’s most unstable regions, according to estimates by non-government analysts, Washington Post reported on Monday.
“The Pakistanis have significantly accelerated production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and developed new weapons to deliver them. After years of approximate weapons parity, Pakistan has now edged ahead of India its nuclear-armed rival,” the reportquoted experts as saying.
An escalation of the arms race in South Asia poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, which has worked to improve its economic, political and defence ties with India while seeking to deepen its relationship with Pakistan as a crucial component of its Afghanistan war strategy.
The Obama administration is caught between fears of proliferation or possible terrorist attempts to seize nuclear materials and Pakistani suspicions that the United States aims to control or limit its weapons programme and favours India, the report said.
Those suspicions were on public display last week at the opening session of UN disarmament talks in Geneva, where Pakistani Ambassador Zamir Akram accused the United States and other major powers of “double standards and discrimination” for pushing a global treaty banning all future production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
Adoption of what is known as the “fissile materials cutoff treaty,” a key element of President Obama’s worldwide nonproliferation agenda, requires international consensus. Pakistan has long been the lone holdout.
While Pakistan has produced more weapons, India is believed to have larger existing stockpiles of such fissile material for future weapons. That long-term Indian advantage, Pakistan has charged, was further enhanced by a 2008 US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The administration has deflected Pakistan’s demands for a similar deal.
Nazir Butt, defence attache at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, said the number of Pakistan’s weapons and the status of its production facilities were confidential.
“Pakistan lives in a tough neighbourhood and will never be oblivious to its security needs,” Butt said. “As a nuclear power, we are very confident of our deterrent capabilities.”
But the administration’s determination to bring the fissile materials ban to completion this year may compel it to confront more directly the issue of proliferation in South Asia. As US arms negotiator Rose Gottemoeller told Bloomberg News at the UN conference on Thursday: “Patience is running out.” Other nuclear powers have their own interests in the region. China, which sees India as a major regional competitor, has major investments in Pakistan and a commitment to supply it with at least two nuclear-energy reactors.
Russia has increased its cooperation with India and told Pakistan last week that it was “disturbed” about its arms buildup. “It’s a risky path, particularly for a government under pressure,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, fresh from a visit to Islamabad, said in remarks at the Nixon Centre on Thursday. The White House usually voices confidence in Pakistan’s strong internal safeguards. But the level of US concern was reflected during last month’s war review, when Pakistan’s nuclear security was set as one of two long-term strategy objectives there, along with the defeat of al Qaeda, said a senior administration official on the condition of anonymity.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/1/2011
