PARIS: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said … that Pakistan would stand by its agreement to buy a French plant for reprocessing nuclear fuel and did not consider US attempts to dissuade the Pakistanis as an ultimatum. In [an] interview with the Paris radio station the [PM] said Pakistan intended to “apply all the conditions” of the Franco-Pakistani accord… . In speaking of his talks with Mr Kissinger, Mr Bhutto was quoted as saying: “We told him we have signed an agreement with France and that we will abide by this agreement. I do not consider this discussion as an ultimatum. We did not talk in terms of ultimatums. … In any case, it is not easy to threaten and to issue an ultimatum to a sovereign State. …”
Mr Bhutto said he did not think there would be any conflict on this point. He was going to continue talking to the Americans “as friends”. Meanwhile, the French Prime Minister, M. Jacques Chirac, today [Aug 11] rejected the American Secretary of State’s proposal for a three-party settlement to the question of France’s supply of [the nuclear plant] to Pakistan. Interviewed by [a radio station] … he said “It is an agreement signed between France and Pakistan.”
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026