Pakistan sustained its nuclear programme regardless of financial turmoil: prime U.S. intelligence official tells Congress

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. File
| Photo Credit: AP

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 informed Congress.

The remarks by Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, got here throughout a Congressional listening to on China on April 15.

Lt. Gen. Kruse informed lawmakers that Pakistan has sought worldwide help, together with from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to resolve its dispute with India about Kashmir. Separately, Islamabad and New Delhi have maintained an uneasy ceasefire alongside the shared Line of Control (LoC) since February 2021, he stated.

“Pakistan has sustained its nuclear modernisation efforts despite its economic turmoil. Terrorist violence against Pakistani security forces and civilians also rose last year,” he stated.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Pakistan is reported to have 170 nuclear warheads as of January 2023.

Cash-strapped Pakistan is banking on shut allies like China and Saudi Arabia for loans to tide over its financial woes. Moreover, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is now in Washington to debate a brand new mortgage package deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan’s contentious relationship with India continues to drive its defence coverage, Lt. Gen. Kruse informed prime American lawmakers.

However, 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 improving the security of its nuclear materials and nuclear C2 [command and control]. In October, Pakistan successfully tested 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 performed nearly day by day counterterrorism operations throughout the previous 12 months.

Islamabad and New Delhi have a protracted historical past of strained relations, primarily as a result of 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 Constitution, revoking the particular standing of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories.

India has been sustaining that it wishes regular neighbourly relations with Pakistan whereas insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an surroundings 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 improvement and good governance within the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are issues inside to India.