Despite the trust deficit in bilateral ties, Pakistan is a very important state for the US due to its nuclear weapons and the importance of its stability in the region, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said. “Pakistan is very important, not just because of Afghanistan but because of its nuclear weapons, because of the importance of stability in the subcontinent. So we need to keep working at this,” Gates said in response to a question at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington-based think tank.
“I do not think that the money that we have spent in Pakistan has been a waste. The reality is that Pakistan now has 140,000 troops on the border. Their actions in Swat and in South Waziristan have been helpful to us,” he argued. “Our relationship with Pakistan is not what we wish it were. There is, as the Pakistanis are fond of pointing out, a deficit of trust, in their view because the US has abandoned them on several occasions in the past; most recently, in 1990 and in 1989 after the Soviets left and then with the Pressler Amendment,” he noted.
“I would say this administration has made a significant effort to try and change the nature of our relationship with Pakistan, in terms of a more enduring partnership. I would say that, obviously, the record is a mixed one. And we both have concerns, but there’s also no doubt in my mind that we have to continue to make our best efforts to manage this relationship going forward,” Gates said.
India concerned for safety of Pakistan nukes
NEW DELHI – India is concerned about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal after a group of militants laid siege to a heavily-guarded naval air base, the defence minister said on Wednesday. “Naturally it is a concern not only for us but for everybody,” AK Antony was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying when asked about concern for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in light of the attack. “Our services are taking all precautions and are ready round-the-clock. But at the same time we don’t want to over-react,” he said.
Sunday’s attack by as few as six Taliban militants on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi has raised fresh worry about the safety of Pakistan’s 70-100 nuclear weapons, and some analysts see it as a ‘blueprint for a raid on a nuclear base’. Some security officials have said the attack may have been an inside job, spotlighting militant sympathisers within the ranks of Pakistan’s military. Tension between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have mounted since the U.S. operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden. Reuters