WASHINGTON: United States (US) President Joe Biden has asserted that Pakistan may be ‘one of the dangerous nations’ in the world and has nuclear weapons without any cohesion, ARY News reported on Saturday.
The US president made these remarks while addressing a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Reception on Friday, according to a transcript issued by the White House.
“What I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion,” the transcript of the address, quoted Joe Biden.
The US president’s remarks were made in the context of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and its impact on the world as well as the United States’ relationship with other countries, including China.
He said the world was changing rapidly and countries were rethinking their alliances. “I genuinely believe this that the world is looking to us. Even our enemies are looking to us to figure out how we figure this out, what we do.”
“Did any of you ever think you’d have a Russian leader, since the Cuban Missile Crisis, threatening the use of tactical nuclear weapons that would — could only kill three, four thousand people and be limited to make a point?” he said.
He added, “Did anybody think we’d be in a situation where China is trying to figure out its role relative to Russia and relative to India and relative to Pakistan?”
“How do we handle that? How do we handle that relative to what’s going on in Russia? And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion,” Biden commented.
Reflecting on his relationship with China, Biden said that former US President Barack Obama had assigned him the task of engaging with Xi Jinping.
“I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping than any person in — any head of state in Amer- — in the world. I spent over — they keep count of it — 78 hours’ worth. Of that, 68 were in person, over the last 10 years, because Barack knew that he couldn’t be dealing with a Vice President. And so, he assigned me,” Joe Biden said.
“This is a guy who understands what he wants but has an enormous, enormous array of problems,” Joe Biden said about Xi Jinping.
Earlier in October, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington values its longstanding cooperation with Pakistan.
Briefing the newsmen in Washington, Nerd Price said that US Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman did have an opportunity to meet with the Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
He said that there are a number of areas where our interests are aligned. The stability and the future of Afghanistan and the Afghan people, the security challenges in the region and potentially beyond face there always are on the agenda when we have high-level engagements with our Pakistani counterparts.
