Islamabad: Pakistan has taken strong exception to reports in the foreign media report that the United States was secretly aiding Pakistan in guarding its nuclear arsenals.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the US was helping Islamabad keep its nuclear weapons secure in a top-secret programme that has cost Washington almost $100 million since 2001.
Intelligence journal Stratfor claimed on Monday that the "US delivered a very clear ultimatum to Gen Musharraf in the wake of 9/11: Unless Pakistan allowed US forces to take control of Pakistani nuclear facilities, Washington would be left with no choice but to destroy those facilities, possibly with India's help."
New York Times said a raft of equipment from helicopters to night-vision goggles to nuclear detection equipment was given to Pakistan to help secure its nuclear material, its warheads, and the laboratories that were the site of the worst known case of nuclear proliferation in the atomic age.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected these reports as distorted and exaggerated. "A story in the New York Times gave distorted and exaggerated picture of our efforts to learn from best practices of other countries with regard to their nuclear safety and export
controls," foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said.
He said as a responsible nuclear weapon state, Pakistan has always attached great significance to the security of its strategic
assets. "These assets are completely safe and secure under multi-layered security and Command and Control structures that are fully indigenous," he stressed.
He pointed out that nuclear security is an area in which it is in everyone's interest to ensure that the best possible procedures are in place, adding that even the most advanced states continue to upgrade their systems and benefit from the experience of other
countries.
"Accordingly, Pakistan and the US have been engaged in mutually agreeable cooperation which is essentially in the nature of rudimentary training and ideas to strength security and surveillance," the spokesman said.
Similarly, the equipment mentioned in the story for tracing nuclear material is of a basic nature and is needed to prevent smuggling of such materials from ports or other exit points.
"For the purpose of this cooperation, the red lines here have always been cleared which ensure that our control and safety procedures remain fully protected and secure," he said. Sadiq made it clear that there is nothing sensational about the cooperation, as the New York Times story appears to imply.
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