Washington: Asserting that Pakistan developing sophisticated missile technology will give it the capability to strike targets well beyond South Asia, including in the US, a top White House official said on Thursday that the Asian country’s actions are an emerging threat to the United States. Such a remark by the top White House official comes […]

Washington: Asserting that Pakistan developing sophisticated missile technology will give it the capability to strike targets well beyond South Asia, including in the US, a top White House official said on Thursday that the Asian country’s actions are an emerging threat to the United States.

Such a remark by the top White House official comes a day after the US slapped sanctions on four Pakistani entities, including the state-owned flagship aerospace and defence agency — National Development Complex (NDC) — on charges of them contributing to Pakistan’s ballistic-missile programme.

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The other three entities are Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International and Rockside Enterprise. All three are based in Karachi. Based in Islamabad, the NDC is responsible for the ballistic-missile programme. It has worked to acquire items to advance Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile programme.

“As a result, the (Joe) Biden administration has implemented a series of steps to contend with further development of long-range missile systems. Over the last year, we have issued three rounds of sanctions against non-Pakistani entities that have provided support to Pakistan’s ballistic-missile programme,” Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer told a think-tank here.

“And yesterday, we issued sanctions directly against Pakistan’s state-owned National Development Complex, which the United States assesses is involved in the development and production of Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missiles, the first time we have sanctioned a Pakistani state-owned enterprise tied to missile development,” he said.

“Simply put, we are going to keep the pressure on Pakistan regarding its long-range missile programme, even as we also continue to seek diplomatic resolutions to address our concerns,” Finer said in his remarks at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top American think-tank.

In his remarks, Finer said recently, Pakistan has developed increasingly sophisticated missile technology, from long-range ballistic missile systems to equipment that would enable the testing of significantly larger rocket motors.

“If these trend lines continue, Pakistan will have the capability to strike targets well beyond South Asia, including in the United States, raising real questions about Pakistan’s intentions,” he said.

The list of countries that possess both nuclear weapons and the missile capability to directly reach the US homeland is very small, and they tend to be adversarial towards the United States — Russia, North Korea and China — Finer observed.

“So candidly, it is hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States. Now, leaders across our administration, myself included, have raised these concerns repeatedly with senior Pakistani officials,” he said.

“We have been a longtime partner with Pakistan on development, on counter-terrorism and other security issues, including quite sensitive issues. We have provided support to Islamabad during difficult times and we continue to desire a cooperative relationship in these areas of shared interest,” Finer added.

“That makes us question even more why Pakistan will be motivated to develop a capability that could be used against us. Unfortunately, it is our sense that Pakistan has failed to take these concerns and, frankly, the concerns of others in the international community seriously and continues to advance these capabilities,” he said.

“Just looking at a map and looking at ranges, we believe that this is fundamentally focused on us,” Finer said in response to a question.

“I think that is an inescapable conclusion based on the information that we have got and that is why this is of such great concern because the United States cannot, will not simply sit back and watch the development of this capability that we believe could pose a threat ultimately down the road,” Finer said.