Pakistan Rejects U.S. Oversight of Nuclear Weapons

Pakistan yesterday rejected the idea of allowing U.S. officials to personally monitor the nation’s Nuclear Command Authority, the Press Trust of India reported.  Media reports this week indicated that the United States was seeking permission to allow an embassy staffer to have direct access to the Pakistani nuclear weapons control institution (see GSN, April 15).

“These are national assets and there will be no compromise on (this issue),” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters.  No foreign official would be granted any sort of access, he said:  “national interests come first” (Press Trust of India I, April 17).

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s new prime minister yesterday reaffirmed his nation’s nuclear deterrence policy (see GSN, March 21).

“Pakistan believe[s] in maintaining a minimum credible deterrence as a cornerstone of its national security policy,” said Yousuf Raza Gillani after his first official visit to Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, the joint services body that oversees the nuclear stockpile.

He dismissed concerns that Pakistani nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands (see GSN, Feb. 7).

“It has been ensured that while our nuclear assets are safe and secure, the force development as per the needs of Pakistan’s minimum deterrence is progressing well,” Gillani said (Press Trust of India II, April 17).

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