WASHINGTON: Pakistan takes its responsibilities for securing its nuclear stockpile quite seriously, says the White House.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest made these remarks while commenting on a report by a US think-tank, also published in The Washington Post, which claimed that in 10 years Pakistan would have the third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world after the US and Russia.

“We continue to be confident that the government of Pakistan is aware of those responsibilities and takes those responsibilities quite seriously,” said Mr Earnest.

Pakistan has rejected the report as “utterly baseless”.

Mr Earnest said he had seen the think-tank report but did not have any official government assessment to share with the media.

He said that President Barack Obama had a long-term goal of “a world without nuclear weapons”. He convenes an international summit every couple of years to promote this goal.

“And that continues to be a top foreign policy priority of his,” he said and noted that the next nuclear summit would be held in Washington next year.

“The second thing is — and this applies not just to Pakistan but to countries around the world that have a nuclear stockpile — that they have a responsibility for securing that nuclear stockpile,” said Mr Earnest.—Correspondent

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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