GENEVA: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday voiced concern over the “generous” supply of conventional and non-conventional weapons to India, saying it was severely straining South Asia’s strategic stability, and threatening “our national security”.
“The largest country in the region continues to be a beneficiary of nuclear exceptionalism, in violation of established non-proliferation norms and principles,” she told a high-level UN panel — without naming India — by video-link from Islamabad.
“This country also remains a net recipient of generous supplies of advanced conventional and non-conventional weapons, technologies and platforms,” the minister added.
Ms. Khar was addressing the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, a 65-member forum established by the international community to negotiate arm control and disarmament agreements, which began its session on Thursday.
The minister said that the favours being done to India were straining the security environment; heightening risks to peace and stability in the region; reinforcing a sense of impunity in the recipient state and freezing pathways to conflict resolution through peaceful means.
“Even as we adhere to and call for restraint and responsibility, we cannot ignore threats to our security,” she told delegates from around the world.
Emphasizing that a third of humanity that lives in South Asia deserves investments in sustainable peace and development, the minister said Pakistan had a clear vision and a policy for peaceful neighbourhood on the basis of universally agreed principles; sovereign equality and undiminished security for all States; no threat or use of force and pacific settlement of disputes.
“We will pursue the path of peace, development and strategic stability in South Asia and beyond, I can assure you of that.”
Pakistan, she said, regards the Conference on Disarmament as an indispensable part of the global security architecture and the disarmament machinery.
Noting with concerns the decades-long impasse in the Conference, Ms. Khar said it’s ability to start negotiations on its agenda items remains contingent on the policy priorities of its members, their threat perceptions and their core national security concerns.
