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ISLAMABAD Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan is capable of protecting its interests if India carried out further nuclear tests.
Asked to comment on reports that India was preparing for nuclear tests and whether Pakistan would respond in kind, Qureshi said 'we don't have to follow the tit-for-tat policy. However, we would analyse the situation then and follow a policy that suits our interests.'
A claim by a leading Indian scientist that one of India's nuclear weapons tested in 1998 'fizzled' has unsettled the military there and opened a fresh debate about the need for more trials.
India has still not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but any further tests have been ruled out by the Congress party-led government, which has also acclaimed the tests a complete success.
Nevertheless, some in the nuclear and military establishment have used the scientist's claims to make a case for further trials, which would inevitably spark fresh tensions between India and its regional rivals China and Pakistan.
Possible fresh tests by India have sparked concern in Pakistan, which conducted tit-for-tat nuclear explosions in 1998.
Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India since 1947, has reminded India of its pledge on a unilateral moratorium on testing.
'We are disturbed by media reports that India might be considering additional tests,' Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said last week in Islamabad.
India and the United States last year signed a historic civilian atomic energy deal which ended decades of India's status as a nuclear pariah and marked a new beginning between the two countries.
Some foreign policy experts cautioned India not to be swayed by any demands for tests and jeopardise the pact with the US, which promises affordable energy to millions of Indians.—Agencies
