PARIS: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said that his talks with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing covered arms, a financial loan, a French nuclear power plant and industrial projects. He told a Press conference that his talks with Premier Jacques Chirac went into great detail… . On arms, he said: “I have not come here to buy arms. The whole purpose of my visit seems to be distorted by this report as though we think only of arms. Naturally we have to take into account our security interests as we live in a dangerous world, in fact in a dangerous part of the world.

“Questions of security are of dire importance for us, but … our relations are … more valuable than that. Arms do not bring us together. They are a sordid subject. I am not a soldier and know little about arms.” Asked whether he had … discussed arms … with the French President he replied: Of course, but I will not discuss details. On finance, Mr Bhutto said that he discussed a French loan … which was not too big and not too small. Pressed further, he admitted that it was in the region of 100 million dollars… . He said Pakistan was still discussing with France the question about a nuclear power plant.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2025