A senior White House official on Thursday said nuclear-armed Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets outside of South Asia, including the United States.

Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Islamabad’s conduct raised “real questions” about its intentions.

“Candidly, it’s hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States,” Finer said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.