Pakistan has called for controlling conventional weapons at the lowest possible levels of armaments and military forces, in order to promote regional and international peace and security.
"A stable balance of conventional forces is necessary to ensure strategic stability, particularly in the regions rive with tensions," Raza Bashir Tarar, the Pakistani delegate, told the General Assembly's First Committee, which deals with Disarmament and Security issues.
"Massive induction of sophisticated weaponry accentuates conventional asymmetries and compels greater reliance on nuclear and missile deterrence in the regions that have such capabilities," he said in a thematic debate on 'Conventional Weapons.'
In South Asia, he said Pakistan was pursuing a Strategic Restraint Regime, which had three constituents: conflict resolution; nuclear and missile restraint; and conventional balance. As part of a dialogue to address outstanding issues and work towards strategic stability and nuclear risk reduction, Pakistan would strive for conventional balance at the lowest possible level of armaments.
"In the interest of peace and security in South Asia, there must be restraint both in the demand and supply of conventional weapons," the Pakistani delegate emphasised. Tarar said that while there was an urgent need to address the challenge of small arms and light weapons trade, it was imperative not to allow that debate to divert focus from the destabilising impact of the huge volume of trade in combat aircraft, aircraft carriers, airborne and early warning and control systems, missile defence, nuclear submarines and warships, as well as related technologies.
Such dealings disrupted regional balances and exacerbated tensions, he said. Driven mostly by commercial considerations, that trade had no meaningful legal or moral underpinning. The Pakistani delegate said that citizens of developing countries were the target clienteles for such sales.
For sellers, a conflict situation opened a window of opportunity for peddling the wares of destruction to both antagonists. It was a moral and legal imperative to promote conventional arms control at the lowest possible levels of armaments and military forces, in order to promote regional and international peace and security. The key to ensuring success of conventional arms control was in its regional and subregional pursuit since most threats to peace and security originated from the conflicts between States located in the same region or subregion.
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