Pakistan long-term partner, but policy is to deny support to its long-range ballistic missile programme: US

The United States has cautioned that while Pakistan has been its long-term partner, its action of imposing sanctions on Islamabad’s ballistic missile programme shows that “when US has disagreements, it won’t hesitate to act on those to protect America’s interests”.

In his weekly press briefing, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked about the reasons behind imposing the sanctions on Pakistan, a long-term ally in the war on terror and a prominent trading partner.

“So, the United States is committed to strengthening the international nonproliferation regime by taking action against networks supporting activities of proliferation concern.

“We have been clear and consistent about our concerns with Pakistan’s ballistic missile program for many years,” Miller replied.

His remarks come after September 13 when it was reported that the US had imposed sanctions on a Chinese research institute and several companies it said have been involved in supplying to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program.

In a statement, Miller said that the Beijing Research Institute of Automation for Machine Building Industry had worked with Pakistan to procure equipment for testing rocket motors for the Shaheen-3 and Ababeel systems and potentially for larger systems.

“As actions demonstrate, the United States will continue to act against proliferation and associated procurement activities of concern, wherever they occur,” Miller had said.

Meanwhile, in his statement today, Miller said that “what this action shows is that there continue to be places where we have disagreement, and when we have disagreements, we won’t hesitate to act on those to protect America’s interests”.

He further said that it has been Washington’s longstanding policy to deny support to Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile program.

“We will continue to use our sanctions and other – our other tools to ensure our national security cannot be – cannot be impacted, and that the U.S. financial system cannot be used by proliferators.”

Following US’s decision, the Foreign Office (FO) had dubbed the development as “biased and politically motivated,” saying the “double standards and discriminatory practices” undermine the credibility of global nonproliferation regimes.

FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had said that similar listings of commercial entities in the past were based on mere suspicion, adding that “involved items not listed under any export control regime and yet were considered sensitive under broad, catch-all provisions”.

Pakistan is already caught in a quagmire with Washington warning Islamabad against its pursuit of a gas deal with Iran that has been on hold for a number of years.