US Discloses Concerns About Pakistan’s Long-Range Missiles

A Pakistan military vehicle carries a long-range ballistic missile Shaheen during the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2022. Ghulam Rasool/AFP via Getty Images

A senior U.S. official recently warned that Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missiles may have the capability of hitting the United States, prompting a dismissal from the South Asian country.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, in remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Dec. 19, said that Islamabad is developing long-range ballistic missile systems that, if developed further, could eventually reach targets beyond the region, including the United States.

“The list of countries that possess both nuclear weapons and the missile capability to directly reach the U.S. homeland is very small, and they tend to be adversarial,” Finer said.

“So candidly, it is hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States.”

One day earlier, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions on four entities contributing to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch on Dec. 21 dismissed Washington’s concerns about its long-range missiles as “unfounded” and “unhelpful for the overall relationship [between the United States and Pakistan].”

Washington’s concerns, according to an expert, stem in part from Pakistan’s deep strategic and technological partnership with its neighbor, China.

The Chinese regime “has played a pivotal role in enhancing Pakistan’s missile and defense capabilities,” Nishakant Ojha, an anti-terrorism adviser to the United Arab Emirates and Iraq and a senior adviser to the board of the Washington-based Global Policy Institute, told The Epoch Times.

According to Ojha, the U.S. warning reflects broader apprehensions about the proliferation of advanced missile technologies and their potential misuse beyond regional boundaries. This concern is particularly pertinent because of Pakistan’s evolving strategic alliances with adversarial regimes such as communist China and North Korea.

China is a major investor in Pakistan, whose economy has heavily relied on loans from the International Monetary Fund for the past several decades.

In April, the United States sanctioned four other companies—three Chinese and one Belarussian—for supplying materials for Pakistan’s ballistic missile program. Pakistan has also long supported North Korea’s missile program.

Meanwhile, the United States and India have become strategically closer due to the shared threat posed by China. India shares thousands of miles of border with China, which stations its soldiers in the disputed territory. New Delhi also substantially relies on Washington for defense equipment supplies. According to Ojha, these dynamics have created new tensions in the region.

Finer said the United States has already raised concerns about Pakistan’s missile program with Islamabad.

“Looking at a map and looking at ranges, we believe that this is fundamentally focused on us, and I think that is an inescapable conclusion based on the information we have got,” Finer said.

“Unfortunately, it is our sense that Pakistan has failed to take U.S. concerns seriously.”

According to Ojha, Finer’s public disclosure of Pakistan’s missile development may be an attempt to “pressure Pakistan into aligning more closely with American interests, particularly in areas like counterterrorism and nuclear nonproliferation.”

By presenting Pakistan as a potential global threat, he said, the United States might be able to secure concessions, such as reducing Islamabad’s ties with adversarial countries or imposing restrictions on its missile program.