‘Junta with nukes’: NSA files show Bush, Putin were worried about Pak’s arsenal

NEwly declassified documents reveal that former US chairman saint george W dubya and Russian chair Vladimir vladimir putin shared anxieties regarding the stability of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, with Putin bluntly characterising the nation as a “junta with nuclear weapons” and Bush predicting that China would eventually become a significant threat to Russian interests.The memorandums of conversation, released this week by the National Security Archive, offer a verbatim look at private exchanges between the two leaders from 2001 to 2008. While much of the public focus at the time was on the war on terror, the transcripts show that concerns over the proliferation network of Pakistani scientist AQ Khan and the opacity of Islamabad’s military leadership were recurring sources of tension in the Oval Office.In a September 16, 2005, meeting, the two leaders expressed mutual alarm regarding evidence that nuclear technology had transferred from Pakistan to Iran.“It was of Pakistani origin. That makes me nervous,” Putin told Bush, referring to uranium traces discovered in Iranian centrifuges.“It makes us nervous, too,” Bush replied.The documents highlight the diplomatic tightrope the US walked with Pakistan, a key ally, despite harbouring doubts about the transparency of its military ruler, Pervez Musharraf. Bush vented frustration regarding the AQ Khan proliferation network, which had been exposed for selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.“We want to know what they said. I keep reminding Musharraf of that,” Bush said regarding the Khan network associates under house arrest. “Either he’s getting nothing or he’s not being forthcoming.”Putin’s scepticism of Pakistan was evident as early as June 2001. During a summit in Slovenia, the Russian leader criticised the West for ignoring the nature of Islamabad’s governance.“I am concerned about Pakistan. It is just a junta with nuclear weapons,” Putin said. “It is no democracy, yet the West makes no criticism of it.”Beyond Pakistan, the transcripts reveal strategic assessments of China. In their 2001 meeting, Bush urged Putin to look westward for his country’s long-term security, warning that Beijing’s rise posed a latent threat to Moscow.“Russia belongs to the West; it is not an enemy,” Bush told Putin. “In 50 years, China could become a big problem. Russia’s interests lie with the West.”By 2008, friction over Chinese military transparency had surfaced. In an April meeting that year, Putin complained to Bush that while Russia was working with the US on missile notification agreements, Beijing was refusing similar openness.“With the Chinese we have no such agreement,” Putin said. “They refuse to agree on more notification of launches.”The conversations also contain stark warnings from Putin regarding Nato expansion, particularly concerning Ukraine. In a prophetic exchange during the 2008 Sochi summit, Putin warned that bringing Ukraine into the alliance would trigger instability and potential conflict, citing the country’s deep internal divisions and large ethnic Russian population.“Accession to Nato of a country like Ukraine will create for the long-term a field of conflict for you and us,” Putin warned, adding that if the country were pushed into the alliance, it could “split apart”.He elaborated that “17 million Russians live in Ukraine,” describing the nation as an “artificial country” cobbled together from territories of Poland, Romania, Hungary and Russia.Despite the heavy subject matter, the transcripts also capture moments of personal rapport and humour between the two men before US-Russia relations famously deteriorated.The 2005 meeting opened with Bush recounting a “bathroom note” incident at the UN Security Council. Bush had passed a note to secretary of state Condoleezza Rice reading, “I have to go to the bathroom,” which was photographed by a press photographer and blown up in the newspapers.“Now, I know how to go to the bathroom; my mother potty-trained me,” Bush joked to Putin.“Yours was a personal thing,” Putin laughed. “Suppose it had been something secret?”“What if it had been a dirty word?” Bush replied. “That would have been worse.”The release of these transcripts comes amid renewed attention on Pakistan’s nuclear activities. Last month, India’s external affairs ministry criticised Pakistan following comments by US President Donald Trump regarding alleged secret nuclear testing.“Clandestine and illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pakistan’s history, which is centred around decades of smuggling, export control violations, secret partnerships, AQ Khan network and further proliferation,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.