WASHINGTON: Pakistan is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, raising questions in the US Congress whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid to strife-torn country could be diverted to its nuclear program, The New York Times reported late Sunday.
The newspaper said members of Congress have been told about Pakistan’s nuclear drive in confidential and public briefings by Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pakistan’s effort to build new nuclear weapons has been a source of growing concern in Washington, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when the United States is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of Pakistan’s 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents, the report said.
The administration’s effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons, the paper added.
President Barack Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material.
Obama administration officials said they had communicated to Congress that their intent was to assure that military aid to Pakistan was directed toward counterterrorism and not diverted, The Times noted.
But Admiral Mullen’s confirmation that the arsenal is increasing seems certain to aggravate Congress’s discomfort, the report said.
The briefings have taken place as Congress has considered proposals to spend three billion dollars over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan’s military for counterinsurgency warfare, the paper pointed out. The aid would come in addition to 7.5 billion in civilian assistance.
