The United States has confirmed it will not support Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme. “We have been clear and consistent about our concerns with Pakistan’s ballistic missile program for many years,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “It has been our longstanding policy to deny support to Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile program, and we will continue to use our sanctions and other – our other tools to ensure our national security cannot be – cannot be impacted, and that the US financial system cannot be used by proliferators,” The spokesperson acknowledged that while the US monitors Pakistan’s missile developments closely, it still considers Pakistan a close partner. “Pakistan has been a long-term partner of ours, and I think what this action shows is that there continue to be places where we have disagreement, and when we have disagreements, we won’t hesitate to act on those to protect America’s interests,” Miller said. Previously, the US State Department imposed sanctions on a Chinese research institute and several companies it said have been involved in supplying Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme.