Obama asks India, Pakistan to reduce nuclear arsenal

In the wake of growing uneasiness over rapidly increasing nuclear arsenal of Pakistan, the US has asked Islamabad and New Delhi to cut down their nuclear arsenal. “India and Pakistan must reduce their nuclear arsenal and ensure they do not continually move in the wrong direction”, US President Barack Obama said. “One of the challenges that we’re going to have here is that it is very difficult to see huge reductions in our nuclear arsenal unless the United States and Russia, as the two largest possessors of nuclear weapons, are prepared to lead the way,” he added.

Expressing caution, Mr Obama said that he hoped that the two countries were not moving in the wrong direction. “The other area where I think we need to see progress is Pakistan and India, that subcontinent, making sure that as they develop military doctrines, that they are not continually moving in the wrong direction,” he said at a press conference in Washington at the end of the two-day Nuclear Security Summit.

As the geopolitical tensions continue to rise in the Korean peninsula, Mr Obama said: “We have to take a look at the Korean Peninsula because North Korea is in a whole different category and poses the most immediate set of concerns for all of us, one that we are working internationally to focus on.” He emphasised that this was one of the reasons a trilateral meeting with Japan and South Korea was held and it was a major topic of discussion with China’s President Xi Jinping as well.

The remarks of the US President comes days after the US had expressed concerns about rapidly increasing nuclear arsenal of Pakistan. US Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier cited the example of US and Russia working further to reduce their nuclear arsenal. He had urged Pakistan to review its nuclear policy.

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