Declassified US Records Expose Global Leaders' Private Fears on Pakistan's Nuclear Program

• Declassified US records reveal private concerns of George W Bush and Vladimir Putin about Pakistan's nuclear program, with Putin calling it "just a junta with nuclear weapons."
• Leaders acknowledged Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, including uranium of Pakistani origin in Iranian centrifuges, but public action was conspicuously absent.
• Pakistan's nuclear program was tolerated and enabled by the US due to geopolitical priorities, such as countering the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, despite intelligence on weaponization.
• The A.Q. Khan network flourished, commercializing nuclear capability and supplying Libya, Iran, and North Korea, yet Pakistan faced no independent international investigation or sustained sanctions.
• The article argues that "selective non-proliferation" by global powers, prioritizing strategic convenience over enforcement, led to today's destabilizing risks from Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Why It Matters: Declassified records show global leaders privately feared Pakistan's nuclear program while publicly enabling it.