Pak calls for conventional arms control in South Asia

UNITED NATIONS—With the preponderant focus on the weapons of mass destruction threat, conventional weapons and the global trade in them were becoming something of a “blind spot”, Pakistan told the General Assembly’s disarmament committee on Friday. Speaking in a debate on conventional weapons, Ambassador Masood Khan called for controlling such arms at the lowest possible levels of armaments and military forces, in order to promote regional and international peace and security.
“While international attention is focused on the need to control weapons of mass destruction, and rightly so, the trade in conventional weapons continues to flourish in a legal and moral vacuum”, he pointed out. Khan, who is Pakistan’s Permanent Representativeto the UN’s European offices in Geneva, said developing countries were the favoured destination for arms sales, accounting for more than 60 per cent of all global arms deliveries from 2001 and 2004. Arms sellers, seeing a conflict as “a unique selling opportunity” often encouraged both sides in a conflict to buy more weapons. Officials of the selling nation marketed their weapons, even as they sought to mediate peace.
The result had been a series of regional arms races, mostly in volatile parts of the world, while the grave humanitarian, political and strategic consequences of conventional weapons proliferation were virtually ignored, he said. Conventional weapons were used in scores of conflicts raging around the world, the Pakistan ambassador said. Those weapons included small arms and light weapons and sophisticated conventional weapons and technology being traded in huge quantities around the globe. The 1978 final document of the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament had characterized the global military expenditure in 1978 as a “colossal waste of resources” and called for, not only reduction in such spending, but for the reinvestment of resources into efforts to fight poverty and improve human conditions.
By that yardstick, cumulatively, global trends in military expenditures worldwide were both “staggering and alarming”, he said. In 2004, the total military spending rose to $1.035 trillion, at current prices. The total budget of the United Nations was less than 1.5 per cent of the world’s military expenditure. The total value of arms transfer agreements last year was estimated at $37 billion, a significant increase over 2003. Also last year, the value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations was nearly $21.8 billion and the total value of international arms transfer agreements, from 2001 to 2004, was $131.2 billion. During that period, developing countries accounted for 63.2 per cent of all global arms deliveries.
The Pakistan ambassador said the demand for weapons emanated from either insecurity or ambition. Some States were seeking to build up their national armed forces on land, in the air, and at sea, with the declared objective of emerging as a global power, often with the self-proclaimed intent to dominate their region. Other States affected by the imbalance were then obliged to acquire weapons to ensure a minimum capability to deter aggression and domination. The build-up of such massive arms acquisitions not only diverted resources from the desperate requirements of development and poverty alleviation, but also contributed to instability and insecurity at the regional and global levels. In view of those disturbing trends, he added, it was imperative to pursue conventional arms control at the lowest possible levels of armaments and military forces, in order to promote regional and international peace and security. The preservation of a balance in the defence capabilities of States at the lowest levels of armaments should be the prime objective of conventional arms control. Indeed, conventional arms control should be pursued primarily in the regional and subregional contexts, since most threats to peace and security arose mainly in States located in the same region or subregion. Good practices could be adapted and followed in that regard. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, a cornerstone of European security, could not be underestimated. States with larger military capabilities had a special responsibility to promote such agreements for regional security.—APP