Washington (Web Desk): United States (US) President Joe Biden has said that Pakistan may be a 'dangerous nation', alleging that the country's nuclear programme lacks "cohesion".
The US President made the remarks while addressing a campaign committee reception about Kremlin’s military advance in Ukraine and its global impact.
"And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion." Biden was quoted as saying in a transcript of the address, published on the White House’s website.
The remarks by the US president were made with regard to the changing geopolitical situation globally, as he highlighted that the world was changing rapidly, and countries were rethinking their alliances.
“And the truth of the matter is, I genuinely believe this, that the world is looking to us. Not a joke. Even our enemies are looking to us to figure out how we figure this out, what we do,” he added.
Joe Biden maintained that there was “a lot at stake” and that the US had the capacity to lead the world to a place it had never been to before.
“Did any of you ever think you’d have a Russian leader, since the Cuban Missile Crisis, threatening the use of tactical nuclear weapons that would, could only kill three, four thousand people and be limited to make a point?” he questioned.
“Did anybody think we’d be in a situation where China is trying to figure out its role relative to Russia and relative to India and relative to Pakistan?” the US president further added.
Mentioning the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, President Biden claimed he had spent more time with him as compared to any other head of state in the world.
"I spent over 78 hours’ worth…Of that, 68 were in person, over the last decade, adding former premier Barack knew that he couldn’t be dealing with a Vice President. And so, he assigned me.
Biden said that his Chinese counterpart understands what he wants but has “enormous, enormous array of problems”.
“How do we handle that? How do we handle that relative to what’s going on in Russia? And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion,” Biden said.
He added that there was “a lot going on”, but emphasised that there were “enormous opportunities for the United States to change the dynamic in the second quarter of the 21st century”.
Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Khan rejected Biden’s statement, calling it as “baseless”.
Responding a question about President Joe Biden’s comments regarding Pakistan during a press conference today, he said, "Pakistan's nuclear command and control system is absolutely safe which has been confirmed by international organisations many times”.
The minister said that the US president's doubts about Pakistan’s nukes are “completely wrong and the statement is baseless”.
Reacting to the allegation, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) General Secretary Asad Umar criticised the US president saying that "countries in glass houses should think before throwing stones at others."
"Nuclear country without cohesion? Is Biden referring to the US? After all his party is going after Donald Trump for trying to subvert the constitution and steal the last presidential election," the PTI leader tweeted.