ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that as a responsible nuclear weapons State, Pakistan supports the objectives of global and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in line with the stipulations of the First Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly (SSOD-I) – with equal and undiminished security being the defining consideration.
In response to media queries on the Joint Statement by the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asim Iftikhar Ahmad termed it a positive development, and said that this understanding among the UN Security Council’s Permanent Members can pave the way for concrete measures for strategic stability at the global and regional levels.
The Spokesperson said that the P-5 statement rightly acknowledges the imperative of creating conducive security environment for meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament. This will include addressing the underlying security concerns of States, pacific settlement of outstanding disputes, and cessation of destabilizing arms build ups that accentuate asymmetries.
Asim Iftikhar said that in the context of South Asia, Pakistan’s proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime, encompassing nuclear and missile restraint, conventional balance and settlement of disputes, can contribute significantly towards maintaining strategic stability and avoiding military conflict.
This will also entail eschewing misplaced notions of space for war in a nuclearized environment, he said.
“Pakistan fully agrees with the need for effective measures by all nuclear powers to guard against any unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons,” he added.
