Nukes Are Pakistan’s Major Deterrent Against India: Mullen

Pakistan believes that nuclear weapons are its “crown jewels” and a deterrent against India, a top US military official Admiral Mike Mullen said, even as he expressed deep concern over the safety of the nukes in the country.

These nuclear weapons are their crown jewels, Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an interactive interview with the correspondent of The New York Times. As much as we are focused on this threat to India's nuclear weapons, I think they are much more than they used to be. These nukes are simply a major deterrence for Pakistan, Mullen said. So they view this as a huge, huge part of their long-term security. And thus, they have not opened the doors up. And I do not expect to go next trip and say, okay, now we will open the doors, he said in response to a question on the status of Pakistan nuclear weapons. At the same time, Mullen expressed his deep concern over the safety of the nuclear weapons in Pakistan. I would not specify the particular path of proliferation, but I am certainly extremely concerned about the potential there. In this manner the level of Pakistani nuclear program is different from that of Iran and South Korea, he added.