Pakistan seeks parity in regional strategic dealings

NEW YORK—Pakistan has told the United Nations that its strategic programme is security driven, not status driven.
In a statement to the First Committee of the General Assembly, Ambassador Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, said that discriminatory approaches in the nuclear or conventional fields will not advance stability in South Asia.
“In the strategic and defense areas, Pakistan always demands and deserves parity of treatment with our neighbour”, Ambassador Masood Khan said who is in New York to attend the current session of the First Committee.
Ambassador Masood Khan told the Committee that Pakistan’s strategic posture reflects restraint and responsibility. He said that Pakistan was pursuing a multi-track engagement with India to find a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, to work for nuclear and missile restraint, and to rectify conventional imbalance. These efforts were part of Pakistan’s concept of a Strategic Restraint Regime (SRR).
“The sole purpose of our capability is to deter all forms of external aggression that can endanger our national security. To that end, we maintain a credible minimum nuclear deterrence. Pakistan will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states. We are against an open-ended arms race in South Asia”, he said.
Ambassador Masood Khan briefed the Committee about a series of measures taken by Pakistan to responsible stewardship of its nuclear programme.
The Pakistani Ambassador said that Pakistan had passed and enforced laws to strengthen export controls on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. “Pakistan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) ensures safe operation of civilian nuclear plants”, he said.
Ambassador Masood Khan called for a stable balance of forces to ensure strategic stability between Pakistan and India.
“Massive induction of sophisticated weaponry including combat aircraft, aircraft carriers, airborne early warning and control system, missile defense, nuclear submarines, and warships will accentuate asymmetries and compel greater reliance on nuclear weapons”, he said.
There must be restraint both in the demand and supply of conventional weapons in South Asia, Masood Khan said.
Turning to the global security issues, Ambassador Khan reiterated President Musharraf’s proposal made on September 14, 2005 that the United Nations must evolve “a new consensus to achieve disarmament and non-proliferation”.
“The global security architecture is in a state of flux. We cannot gloss over the fact that negotiations on disarmament and non-proliferation broke down for the 2005 Summit outcome, leaving empty spaces’”, he said.
To address existing and emerging global challenges, Pakistan called for developing a new security consensus either through the Conference on Disarmament or a special session of the UN Disarmament Commission.—APP