New Delhi, Nov 7 (UNI) India on Friday said that “clandestine and illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pakistan’s history”, days after US President Donald Trump claimed that Islamabad is testing nuclear weapons.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in his weekly media briefing, said:
“Clandestine and illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pakistan’s history, that is centred around decades of smuggling, export control violations, secret partnerships, the AQ Khan network and further proliferation.
“India has always drawn the attention of the international community to these aspects of Pakistan’s record.”
He added that in this backdrop, India has taken note of President Trump’s comment about Pakistan’s nuclear testing.
The MEA spokesperson’s comment comes two days after Islamabad rejected US President Trump’s claim about Pakistan secretly conducting nuclear weapons tests.
A senior Pakistani security official told CBS News that Islamabad maintains a “unilateral moratorium” on testing and remains committed to restraint, even though it is not a signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
“Pakistan was not the first to carry out nuclear tests and will not be the first to resume nuclear tests,” the Pakistani official claimed.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump told CBS News that several nations, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan, continue to conduct secret nuclear tests while the US has refrained for more than three decades.
Trump said, “Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. You know, we’re an open society. We’re different. We talk about it…. We’re gonna test, because they test and others test.”
“And certainly, North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” he said. “They don’t go and tell you about it. You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing. They test way under — underground, where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test,” Trump said.
