New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) India on Thursday said that Pakistan has a history of clandestine nuclear proliferation and US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard's statement makes it clear on what kind of threat Islamabad poses to the world.

"As far as Pakistan is concerned, they have a history. They have a history of clandestine nuclear proliferation, and statements like this again make it clear what kind of threat they pose to the world because of their clandestine nuclear operations," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi while replying to question on Gabbard's statement on Pakistan.

Gabbard on Wednesday warned that Pakistan's advancing missile programme could eventually put the United States within range, flagging it as part of a growing set of global threats to the American homeland.

Presenting the intelligence community’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, Gabbard said China and Russia are developing advanced delivery systems capable of bypassing US missile defences, while North Korea already has intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach American soil and continues to expand its nuclear arsenal.

She added that Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development could evolve into intercontinental systems capable of striking the US, placing it in a category of emerging strategic concern for American security planners.

“The IC assesses that China and Russia are developing advanced delivery systems meant to be capable of penetrating or bypassing US missile defences. North Korea’s ICBMs can already reach US soil, and it is committed to expanding its nuclear arsenal,” she said.

“Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the Homeland,” Gabbard told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Her 34-page assessment of the World Threat gave a similar assessment.

“Pakistan continues to develop increasingly sophisticated missile technology that provides its military the means to develop missile systems with the capability to strike targets beyond South Asia, and if these trends continue, ICBMs that would threaten the US,” the report said.

Gabbard told lawmakers that the US secure nuclear deterrent continues to ensure safety in the Homeland against strategic threats. However, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our Homeland within range.

“The IC assesses that threats to the Homeland will expand collectively to more than 16,000 missiles by 2035, from the current assessed figure of more than 3,000 missiles,” she said.

--IANS

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