Pakistan Sustained Its Nuclear Programme Regardless of Financial Turmoil: High U.S. Intelligence Official Tells Congress

WASHINGTON, Apr 16: Pakistan sustained its nuclear modernisation efforts final 12 months regardless of its financial turmoil as its contentious relationship with India continues to drive its defence coverage, the highest U.S. intelligence official advised Congress.
The remarks by Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Director of the Defence Intelligence Company, got here throughout a Congressional listening to on China on April 15.
Lt. Gen. Kruse advised lawmakers that Pakistan has sought worldwide assist, together with from the United Nations Safety Council (UNSC), to resolve its dispute with India about Kashmir. Individually, Islamabad and New Delhi have maintained an uneasy ceasefire alongside the shared Line of Management (LoC) since February 2021, he stated.
“Pakistan has sustained its nuclear modernisation efforts regardless of its financial turmoil. Terrorist violence towards Pakistani safety forces and civilians additionally rose final 12 months,” he stated.
In accordance with the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute, Pakistan is reported to have 170 nuclear warheads as of January 2023.
Money-strapped Pakistan is banking on shut allies like China and Saudi Arabia for loans to tide over its financial woes. Furthermore, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is now in Washington to debate a brand new mortgage package deal with the Worldwide Financial Fund.
Pakistan’s contentious relationship with India continues to drive its defence coverage, Lt. Gen. Kruse advised prime American lawmakers.
Nevertheless, cross-border violence between the nations has decreased since their February 2021 recommitment to a ceasefire, he stated.
“Islamabad is modernising its nuclear arsenal and enhancing the safety of its nuclear supplies and nuclear C2 [command and control]. In October, Pakistan efficiently examined its Ababeel medium-range ballistic missile,” he stated.
In 2023, militants killed roughly 400 safety forces, a nine-year excessive, and Pakistani safety forces have carried out nearly every day counterterrorism operations in the course of the previous 12 months.
Islamabad and New Delhi have a protracted historical past of strained relations, primarily because of the Kashmir difficulty in addition to the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
In 2019, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties with New Delhi after the Indian authorities abrogated Article 370 of the Structure, revoking the particular standing of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories.
India has been sustaining that it needs regular neighbourly relations with Pakistan whereas insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an setting that is freed from terror and hostility for such an engagement.
New Delhi has additionally asserted that the constitutional measures taken by the Indian authorities to make sure socio-economic growth and good governance within the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are issues inner to India. (Businesses)