ISLAMABAD, July 26: Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has expressed the hope that the legislation that the US Congress has to pass to make operational the Bush administration’s defence and nuclear cooperation agreements with India would be ‘non-discriminatory’.

According to a foreign office statement, Mr Kasuri was talking to a six-member media delegation from Sri Lanka, which met him in his office here on Tuesday. Pakistan’s nuclear capability, the foreign minister said, was defensive and based on the minimum credible nuclear deterrence which would be maintained.

“Pakistan’s nuclear programme and strategic assets are secure and under a strict and multi-layered custodial control,” he added. When asked about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, the foreign minister indicated that Pakistan would go ahead with the project even without India.

“India was welcome to join this project if it so wanted,” he said, alluding to the cooling of India’s enthusiasm for the project since it signed the nuclear energy cooperation agreement with the US which opposes the plan.

Mr Kasuri told the Sri Lankan journalists that for durable peace in South Asia it was essential to resolve the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of the Kashmiris as well as that of India and Pakistan.

While expressing satisfaction at the volume of the two-way trade between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he said the Free Trade Agreement signed by the two countries recently would open “a new chapter in their bilateral relations”.