India has responded strongly to US President Donald Trump’s revelation that Pakistan has been secretly testing nuclear weapons. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Friday said that Pakistan has a long-standing record of clandestine and illegal nuclear activities involving smuggling and export control violations.
"Clandestine and illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pakistan's history, which is centred around decades of smuggling, export control violations, secret partnerships, AQ Khan network and further proliferation," the MEA Spokesperson said.
"India has always drawn the attention of the international community to these aspects of Pakistan's record," he added.
He added that India has “taken note” of Trump’s remarks on Pakistan’s nuclear testing. Jaiswal’s statement follows Trump’s recent revelation that Pakistan is among the nations actively conducting nuclear tests.
In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump claimed that several countries including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan are carrying out nuclear tests.
"Russia's testing and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. We're an open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it because otherwise you people are going to report. They don't have reporters that are going to be writing about it," Trump stated.
"We're going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing," he added.
Trump made these remarks when he was asked about his decision of "detonating nuclear weapons" after more than 30 years following Russia's recent trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, including a Poseidon underwater drone.
( With ANI inputs)
