Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has launched a scathing critique of the United States' recent sanctions on Islamabad's ballistic missile programme during a talk at the Oxford Union, questioning what he called the hypocrisy of global nuclear policies.
"As far as the sanctions are concerned, for the US, the sanctions are like candy—they hand them out to everybody," Bilawal said.
His comments come amid mounting tensions between Washington and Islamabad after the US imposed fresh sanctions in December last year on several Pakistani entities linked to the country's missile programme.
The move was condemned by Pakistan as "discriminatory".
Nuclear privilege
Bilawal questioned the criteria determining which nations are allowed to develop and maintain nuclear weapons.
"What's the rule? What are the rules that allow you to be entitled to a nuclear weapon and not entitled to a nuclear weapon? What are the rules that entitle you to a missile and not entitle you to a missile?" he asked, suggesting an inherent bias in the global system.
The former Pakistani top diplomat compared Western nations' nuclear policies to America's domestic gun rights.
"Every American's right to bear arms is entitled. Is it like in that way every Western country or every white country is allowed nuclear weapons or weapons at large, and the rest of us aren't?" he questioned.
Bilawal said Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme was defensive in nature and not part of any expansionist agenda.
"We do not seek to build a 'Riviera' anywhere or occupy any Greenland. We don't have an expansionist foreign policy to take over the Panama Canal or conquer Canada," he said.
Pakistan's nuclear deterrence, he argued, was a direct response to India's nuclear capabilities. The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought several wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
"Our nukes are only for our self-defence. They were made after India made their weapons, they were tested after India tested their weapons. Unlike India, we haven't accidentally shot a nuclear-armed ballistic missile into our neighbour's territory and said 'oops'," he said, referencing an incident in 2022 when India mistakenly fired a cruise missile into Pakistan.
US sanctions
The Pakistani government has strongly opposed the US sanctions, calling them an unfair targeting of the country's strategic capabilities.
In December last year, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the sanctions as harmful to regional stability and accused the US of "double standards" in its approach to arms proliferation.
The US has defended its decision, with a State Department spokesperson saying that Washington has been "clear and consistent" in its concerns about weapons proliferation.
The newly sanctioned entities included the Islamabad-based National Development Complex, which the US claimed was involved in acquiring materials for Pakistan's long-range ballistic missile programme.
Bilawal, however, said the sanctions should not be taken at face value.
"The level of hypocrisy, particularly from the United States in their world policing these days, makes one want to take these sanctions with a little bit of a pinch of salt—but obviously you can't. There's a serious challenge to Pakistan's national security."
He said that failing to safeguard Pakistan's nuclear capability could have dire consequences, pointing to Ukraine as a cautionary tale.
"If there was even a sliver of doubt, go ask Zelenskyy how he feels now that Ukraine lost their nuclear weapons," he said, referring to Ukraine's decision to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in the 1990s—a move that some argue left it vulnerable to Russia's invasion.
