While Washington continued its efforts to stymie Pakistan’s nuclear programme, experts in Washington office advised US lawmakers to opt for an alternative strategic approach of arms control while terming support for India’s NSG membership as ‘problematic’.
US and Pakistan had a deep rooted mistrust for the other where both looking only through their personalized strategic prism.
Foreign secretary Aziz claims that Pakistan’s nuclear assets safe from terrorists. The co-director of nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said “Recognising that the US options and leverage are quite limited, an alternative approach would be to support the development of an Indian and Pakistani logic of managing their security competition through negotiated limitations on nuclear and military capabilities and postures,”
Reviewing Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine, the expert said that atomic weapons remain central to Islamabad’s “security-seeking behaviour in a region it considers to be enduringly hostile”.
In recent political scenario where US is exploring a deal to limit Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and India is expanding its defence spending while uplifting a strategic cooperation with the US, according to Dalton, prompted Pakistan to shift towards nuclear weapons as a deterrent for all threats from India.
