The President of the United States, Joe Biden while speaking on nukes, referred to Pakistan as a ‘dangerous country’ who can use nuclear weapons irresponsibly. The statement was issued by him on October 15, 2022 at the Democratic congressional campaign committee reception held in Los Angeles. The remark by President Biden was made as he put light on the foreign policy of the US state for China and Russia.
Statement of President Biden as quoted by the White house
“What I think is maybe one of the most dangerous countries in the world, Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion”.
Meanwhile, referring to the President of China, Xi Jingping, Biden called him a leader with a huge number of problems.
He quoted, “This is a guy, who understands what he wants but at the same time has an enormous array of problems. How do we handle that? How do we handle that relative to what is going on in Russia?”.
The statement definitely sounds unpleasant to Pakistan, who emerged as a nuclear power in 1998 and currently possesses an estimated 165 nuclear warheads as of 2021. On the other hand, Pakistan has never released a statement admitting the ‘no-first use policy’ of nuclear weapons like India, which could be the reason behind President Biden’s statement. There are many reasons of concern and terrorism tops all of them.
In 2019, a similar kind of remark for Pakistan was made by the Former US Defence Secretary James Mattis, while he also slammed the country’s obsession with India (in context of Kashmir issue).
Recently, the United States’ National Security Strategy was released, marking out China as its top threat and India as its ‘key partner’ but there was no mention of Pakistan.
Additionally, the American think-tank Brookings Institution in its recent article described Pakistan as a “state which is governed by a shaky coalition of ineffective politicians as well as trained military leaders desperately trying to contain the challenge of domestic terrorism”.
Despite the obstacles being faced by the United States, there are broad opportunities for Washington D.C., highlights President Biden, as he speaks on the change of geo-political equations. He asserted, “So, folks, there is a lot going on at present.. A lot going on. But there are also enormous opportunities for the United States to change the dynamic in the second quarter of the – 21st century”.
