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U.S. turned blind eye to Pak.’s nuke programme in 1970s: documents
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- According to latest declassified State Department documents, U.S. acceded to Pakistan’s demand to overlook its secretive nuclear weapons programme following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s after Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping convinced Washington to support Islamabad for the “stability” in South Asia.
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- Convincing U.S- The documents reveal that the then Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul Haq and Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping were successful in extracting this price from the U.S. in lieu of Islamabad’s support to America against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
- In addition to the U.S. turning a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, Deng also convinced the U.S. to start giving more military and financial aid to Pakistan, according to the U.S. Foreign Relations 1977-1980 volume on Afghanistan.
- Pro-Soviet India- The document indicates that both Zia and Deng successfully convinced the then Jimmy Carter administration that India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would be pro-Soviet.
Source
The Hindu