After the US deputy nationwide safety advisor claimed that Islamabad would use its nuclear missiles for hostile intent, Pakistan on Saturday termed allegations “unfounded, devoid of rationality and sense of historical past”.
In an announcement, the Overseas Workplace stated: “Pakistan has made it abundantly clear that our strategic program and allied capabilities are solely meant to discourage and thwart a transparent and visual existential menace from our neighbourhood and shouldn’t be perceived as a menace to another nation.”
“Therefore, any irrational assumption of a hostile intent from Pakistan by another nation together with the US is perplexing in addition to illogical,” it added.
Senior White Home official, Deputy Nationwide Safety Adviser Jon Finer, on Thursday stated Pakistan was growing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that ultimately might enable it to strike targets outdoors of South Asia, together with the USA.
Islamabad’s conduct raised “actual questions” about its intentions, he stated. “Candidly, it is onerous for us to see Pakistan’s actions as something aside from an rising menace to the USA,” Finer stated in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace.
His remark got here a day after the USA stated it was imposing new sanctions associated to Pakistan’s long-range ballistic-missile programme, together with on the state-owned defence company that oversees the programme.
State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller stated that the measures slapped on the Nationwide Growth Advanced and three companies have been imposed underneath an government order that “targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their technique of supply.”
Nonetheless, the Overseas Workplace, in its newest assertion, stated the alleged menace notion from Pakistan’s missile capabilities and supply means, raised by the US official was unlucky.
“These allegations are unfounded, devoid of rationality and sense of historical past,” it stated. Since 1954, Pakistan and the US have loved a constructive and broad-ranging relationship, the assertion added.
The latest spate of US allegations in direction of a significant non-NATO ally could be unhelpful for the general relationship, particularly within the absence of any proof on this regard, the FO stated.
“Pakistan has by no means had any ill-intention in direction of the US in any type or method, and this basic actuality has not modified,” the assertion talked about.
Quite the opposite, it talked about, that Pakistan has made monumental sacrifices for this relationship and continues to endure massively in sustaining the onslaught of the aftermath of US insurance policies within the area.
The Overseas Workplace stated that it was regrettable that the US official alluded to bracketing Pakistan with those that are perceived to be in an adversarial relationship with the US.
Whereas ignoring and shielding the manifestations of a way more potent missile functionality in our japanese neighbourhood, it stated, issues on Pakistani capabilities are being raised seemingly on the behest of others to additional intensify the already fragile strategic stability within the area.
“We want to reiterate that Pakistan’s strategic capabilities are supposed to defend its sovereignty and protect peace and stability in South Asia,” the assertion talked about.
Pakistan can not abdicate its proper to develop capabilities which can be commensurate with the necessity to keep credible minimal deterrence in addition to evolving and dynamic threats, the MoFA stated.
Since 2012, the Overseas Workplace stated, when the US officers began broaching the topic, completely different Pakistani governments, management and officers, have endeavoured every so often, to positively deal with and take away the misplaced US issues.
In view of the profound sanctity of the strategic programme for the folks of Pakistan and for the nation’s defence, “our clear iterations and manifestation of intent and objective thereof, any try to hunt intrusion into it, in any type or method, on any pretext in any way, is neither thinkable nor attainable”.
“There may be unshakeable resolve and full consensus on this facet throughout the whole political and social spectrum of the nation,” the assertion talked about.
“Pakistan has at all times sought to interact constructively with the US on all points, together with the necessity to pursue a balanced method to safety and stability in our area. We have now an extended historical past of cooperation and want to construct on this robust legacy.”