Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador after President Joe Biden questioned the country’s possession of nuclear weapons. The foreign ministry as well as top current and former officials assured on Saturday that the state handles its arsenal in a responsible way.
Biden lashed out at Pakistan during a fundraiser event in Los Angeles, California on Thursday. As he described his relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he noted that the Chinese leader had much on his plate at the moment, including Pakistan.
“This is a guy who understands what he wants but has an enormous, enormous array of problems,” Biden said. “How do we handle that relative to what’s going on in Russia? And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
Hours after a transcript of the remarks was released by the White House, Pakistan’s foreign minister summoned Donald Blome, the US ambassador, to issue a formal protest.
The ministry said the US diplomat was notified about Islamabad’s “disappointment and concern” with Biden’s words, which were “not based on ground reality or facts.” Pakistan holds “impeccable stewardship” of its arsenal, it stressed.
“The real threat to international peace and security was posed by violation of global norms by some states, repeated nuclear security incidents without any accountability, and arms race between leading nuclear weapon states and introduction of new security constructs that disturb regional balance,” the statement added.
Acting Foreign Secretary Jauhar Saleem later downplayed the incident, telling a news conference that he didn’t expect it to have a lasting impact on relations.
Multiple serving and former officials in Pakistan responded to Biden’s remarks in a similar fashion, assuring that Islamabad was a trustworthy possessor of nuclear weapons.
“Our nuclear assets have the best safeguards as per IAEA requirements. We take these safety measures with the utmost seriousness. Let no one have any doubts,” Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif tweeted.
His predecessor, Imran Khan, said the same about the situation during his time in office, before questioning which of the two nations – Pakistan or the US – was actually dangerous.
“Unlike the US which has been involved in wars across the world, when has Pakistan shown aggression esp[ecially] post-nuclearisation?” he asked.
Khan was removed from office by parliament in April in what he claimed to be a US-backed soft coup against him.
Pakistan has some 165 nuclear warheads, according to an estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Its neighbor and rival India has 160, according to the same source.