ISLAMABAD, July 24: Pakistan on Monday neither denied nor confirmed reports that a major expansion of its nuclear programme was under way and it was building a new reactor close to its facility in Khushab.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam remained non-committal on the question and left it at: “Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state.”

She was nonchalant about a report on expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear programme and its facility in Khushab by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security which was also published in The Washington Post on Monday.

This ought to be no revelation to anyone because Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state. It is a known fact,” Ms Aslam told a weekly news briefing here. “I think there should be no excitement about this,” she said.

When pointedly asked if Pakistan was going in for nuclear expansion and building a new reactor, the spokesperson said she would not go into the specifics of the facilities and the nuclear programme. Underlining that it was a well-known fact that Khushab was a nuclear facility site, she pointed out that its coordinates were exchanged even with India under the 1988 bilateral agreement on nuclear facilities and installations. “This list is exchanged every year on the 1st of January,” she said.

—Q.A.