Report: Pakistan on track to have world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal
Pakistan could have 350 nuclear warheads, the world's third largest stockpile, within the next decade if it continues its current addition of 20 nuclear warheads annually, according to a new report released by two Washington-based think tanks.
"Many observers have concluded that Pakistan's rate of fissile material production (and assumed construction of nuclear weapons) gives it the fastest-growing nuclear weapons stockpile," according to the report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Stimson Center.
Its growth rate would make Pakistan's nuclear arsenal twice the size of neighbor India and larger than the United Kingdom's, China's and France's nuclear weapon stockpile in the next five to 10 years, according to the report. Estimates were used to gauge the nuclear proliferation within notoriously secretive India and Pakistan.
Pakistan's growing nuclear strength is likely to make some nervous, as the Islamic State is thought to be gaining sympathy throughout Pakistan over the last few years.
Pakistan is the country that some say was harboring Osama bin Laden. There have been conflicting reports on whether the U.S. conducted the raid on bin Laden's compound by itself, as the U.S. claims, or whether it had help from Pakistan.
Reporter Seymour Hersh reported earlier this year reported that Pakistan was holding bin Laden prisoner for years, and that two Pakistani generals ensured U.S. troops could conduct the raid in 2011.
The report, authored by two U.S. analysts, warns that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal growth "goes well beyond the assurances of credible minimal deterrence provided by Pakistani officials and analysts."
Pakistan is producing four times the number of nuclear warheads annually as India, says the report. Neither country has signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and both became nuclear powers in 1998.
Tensions between the two countries have grown recently, and a peace negotiation over disputed territory in Kashmir fell through this week.
The growth of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal also raises questions about global security. Abdul Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, was arrested in 2004 for selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Pakistan will not be accepted as "a normal, nuclear state" if it competes with India or harbors groups that could spark wars with India, the report said, and the "international community is unlikely to accommodate Pakistan's desire to enter the nuclear mainstream without corresponding steps by Pakistan to align aspects of its nuclear policy and practices closer with international norms."
Asked whether the State Department could confirm the report's findings, spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday, "We've just seen this report and we're digesting [it.] I'm not going to have anything substantive to offer on the report's findings."
"This is something we continue to focus on consistent with the president's vision of a world without nuclear weapons … we're still going through the report," Kirby added.
The vast majority of the world's nuclear weapons belong to Russia and the U.S.; Russia has 7,500 nuclear warheads and the U.S. has 7,200 warheads. The Federation of American Scientists lists France at No. 3 with 300 warheads.The remaining countries each have 250 or fewer warheads, FAS says.
While calling the report "overblown," Mansoor Ahmed, nuclear expert at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said "the world must understand … nuclear weapons are part of Pakistan's belief system."
"It's a culture that has been built up over the years because [nuclear weapons] have provided a credible deterrence against external aggression," Ahmed told the Express Tribune.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-pakistan-on-track-to-have-worlds-3rd-largest-nuclear-arsenal/article/2570953
No comments:
Post a Comment