ISLAMABAD (PTI): Japan may curtail its official development assistance to Pakistan following reports that Islamabad’s nuclear program is military oriented.
Sharif reiterated his pet proposal of a five-nation conference to make south Asia a nuclear weapon-free zone and said Pakistan wanted the international community to put pressure on India to resolve its differences with Pakistan so that a nuclear agreement between the two countries could be signed.
“We have a hostile neighbor. India is already a nuclear power and is not ready to listen to anyone. Then why should Pakistan be singled out and pressurized to accept what is not acceptable to India?” The Japanese Kyodo News Agency quoted him as saying.
Asked why Pakistan will not accept international inspections and safeguards if its nuclear program is as peaceful as his government claims Sharif said:
“Let us see that India is also being asked to do what we are being asked.”
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Dec. 14 he would raise the country’s controversial nuclear program during his visit to Japan.
“I will talk to the Japanese prime minister on this subject” Sharif told Japanese correspondents who asked if Pakistan’s nuclear program was straining relations between the two countries.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 30, 1992
