Pakistan to Join Antinuclear Terror Effort

Pakistan on Saturday announced its intention to join the U.S.-Russian program intended to prevent nuclear terrorism, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 23).

However, participation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism would not cover the country’s military nuclear program and installations, according to the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Several dozen nations have joined the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, pledging to secure nuclear material and facilities.

Pakistan is one of a handful of known or suspected nuclear powers that remain outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  It was home to the black market network operated by top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea (see GSN, May 9).

“Pakistan’s participation in the global initiative is a manifestation of the fact that nuclear security and export control measures in Pakistan are at par with latest international standards,” the ministry said in a statement.

Pakistani officials could participate in the next initiative meeting, scheduled for June 11 to 12 in Kazakhstan, according to the statement (Sadaqat Jan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 10).

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