January 20, 2003	Monday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1423

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LONDON, Jan 19: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Sunday that Pakistan would not go for tit-for-tat response to Indian Akash missile test on Saturday but would take required steps to ensure strategic balance in the region.

“I don’t think that we should be forced into a tit-for-tat reaction,” he told APP here on Sunday while on way to New York to attend UN Security Council meeting on Jan 20 and meet leaders of the Bush administration.

During his visit, Kasuri would meet Secretary of State Colin Powell, many Congressmen and senators and would discuss with them the entire gamut of Islamabad’s relations with Washington, particularly registration of Pakistanis by the US authorities.

“We will take whatever is required to ensure that the strategic balance in the Subcontinent is maintained. We have our own time-table and we will proceed according to our time-table,” he said.

Pakistan did not “need to react to Indian missile tests because our programme is very much mature. It will be accurate to say that we have a more advanced missile programme than India has.” He said that Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes were indigenous and self-sufficient.

Responding to allegations by Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani that Pakistan was aiding Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Kasuri said: “There is nothing new as he has been saying these things as well as other leaders of the BJP unfortunately. They have been levelling wild accusations at Pakistan.”