N-deterrence with India working: Pak

Pakistan has claimed that its policy of nuclear deterrence with India was working, but its atomic weapons were not meant for first use.

"Our history with India shows nuclear weapons working as deterrence," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told 'Voice of America' in an interview.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact had not committed for 'no first use' of nuclear weapons in the past.

They had tactical and strategic weapons and wider distances, she said.

"We are a small country, but we cannot renounce the idea of 'no first use' which is a part of our strategic planning and concept of deterrence," Aslam, currently in Washington to attend the US-Pakistan dialogue to forge strategic partnership, said.

Replying to a question about the recent India-Pakistan nuclear confidence building measures and removal of differences on the issue till July, Aslam said it was continuity of a process.

"The recent talks held in Islamabad took up the progress on previous CBMs and now we have provided a new draft agreement to India, which is based on 'incidents at sea'. They would take back this draft to discuss it under their inter-agency consultation process and then it would come back to us," she said.

In the Lahore declaration, both sides affirmed their intentions of working out an agreement on pre-notification of ballistic missiles.

"CBMs is a process under which we would like to see what kind of initiatives Indian side offers to us. Different agencies, departments and ministries would get confidence out of these consultations," she said.