Pakistan’s nukes are in safe hands, PM assures world

As world leaders gathered for a working dinner hosted by the South Korean president on Monday to assess the progress made since the 2010 Washington Summit and reaffirm their commitment to enhance international cooperation to bolster nuclear security, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made a convincing presentation to the participants about Pakistan’s efficient command and control system over its stocks of nuclear material.
The PM informed the largest gathering on nuclear security that Pakistan being an active partner in the global effort to create a secure world had taken a number of measures to prevent the nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, which included the deployment of Special Nuclear Material (SNM) portals at all key entry and exit points at the borders to detect, deter and prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials. The comment came amidst massive disinformation campaign launched by the Indian media about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons being vulnerable to theft just ahead of the ongoing security summit.

Earlier in an interview with a Korean television, Gilani rubbished the misleading propaganda when he was asked about the doubts being expressed by the world about the security of his country’s nuclear programme. “We have established a centre of excellence which conducts specialized training courses in nuclear security, physical protection and personnel reliability, and also offer this facility as a regional and international hub for training,” he added.
Asked whether Islamabad had any plans to join the global initiative for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, he said his country’s point of view was different from the objectives of the NPT. What is significant is that while the world leaders warned North Korea and Iran against jeopardizing the effort to create secure world, the PM adhered to Pakistan’s stated position that “everything” should be settled through negotiation and diplomacy rather than coercive moves.
At his dinner speech, Gilani once again urged the international community to give Pakistan non-discriminatory access to nuclear technology for peaceful uses to meet its energy needs. He also informed the participants that Pakistan had been implementing its Nuclear Security Action Plan in cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency which was aimed at reinforcing physical protection of nuclear medical centres and civilian nuclear plants.
Meanwhile, some important events took place on the first day on the margins of the security summit which included a series of bilateral meetings among the world leaders followed by the signing of a multilateral agreement by the United States, Belgium, France and the Netherlands with their leaders reaffirming their pledge to minimise the use of highly enriched uranium.
There are going to be some more bilateral interactions on Tuesday (today) with the most important for Pakistan being a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Gilani. They also briefly spoke of relations between the both the countries as they strode out from the opening session of the summit.
Reports in the local media indicated that the PM told the US president that the new rules of engagement with Washington were to be approved by parliament. The reports further revealed that Obama told Gilani that the United States had confidence in Pakistani parliament and he was looking forward to addressing Islamabad’s grievances.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters later, “There obviously has been a fairly turbulent period in US-Pakistan relations over the course of the last several months.”
“We’ll want to address the state of the relationship.” He said Obama would assure Gilani of “our continued interest in counter-terrorism cooperation” with Pakistan and stress shared interests in stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan. He said Obama would also discuss with Gilani plans for a transition to an Afghan security lead in Afghanistan and US support to an Afghan-led reconciliation process.
Rhodes was quick to dismiss Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s warning on Monday of growing instability in the West’s relations with Pakistan. “I’m not sure that he has any particular insight into NATO’s relationship with Pakistan,” he said. “I think NATO has had a relationship since the beginning of the Afghan war, because we have a shared interest with Pakistan and there not being violent extremist groups within their border and instability in Afghanistan,” Rhodes said.
As the world leaders will meet again on the second and last day of the summit, they will discuss the topics of national measures and international cooperation to enhance nuclear security, as well as future commitments, during the morning session on March 27. The Seoul communiqué, to be adopted at the evening session is expected to reaffirm the international commitments to minimise the use of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium and expand discussions on nuclear safety in the context of nuclear security following the nuclear crisis in Japan.