Reaffirming its commitment to the goal of disarmament, Pakistan has called for full access to nuclear technology needed for producing more nuclear energy to redress its growing electricity deficit. "We call upon the international community to reverse discrimination and enable Pakistan to have full access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," Pakistani Permanent Representative to the UN, Masood Khan, told UN Disarmament Commission, a subsidiary of the General Assembly, on Monday.
Pakistan's nuclear policy was guided by the principles of restraint and responsibility, Ambassador Khan said, adding, "We do not want an arms race in South Asia; but we are fully attentive to the emerging security dynamics. Our deterrence will remain symmetric and credible."
Pakistan, he said, would continue to pursue its policy of 'Strategic Restraint Regime', comprising nuclear restraint, conventional balance and conflict resolution. "In the past we have engaged India to work on confidence building and nuclear risk reduction through a series of measures covering communication, pre-notification of missile flight tests and accidents." Pakistani envoy went on to say, "We believe that induction of a ballistic missile defence system in South Asia will be an escalatory and destabilising step."
Stressing the need for consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation to respond to new realities and challenges, Ambassador Masood Khan outlined the factors influencing such an agreement:
1. Consensus building must proceed from the universally recognised premise that security is indivisible and based on the right of all states to equal security, both in the non-conventional and conventional fields and at regional as well as international levels.
2. The need to understand at least three drivers for acquisition of weapons: perceived threats from superior conventional or non-conventional forces; disputes and conflicts with more powerful States; and discrimination in the application of international norms and laws.
3. An agreed, criteria-based and non-discriminatory approach must be evolved for promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy under appropriate international safeguards, in accordance with the international obligations of States.
4. Concerns arising from development, deployment and proliferation of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems need to be addressed by means of legal instruments.
5. Development and use of armed drones and Lethal Autonomous Robots (LARs), which operate without human intervention once launched, must strictly conform to international law.
"There should be a renewed commitment to achieve nuclear disarmament within a reasonable timeframe," the Pakistani ambassador said. "Without this commitment, the 'bargain' of the non-proliferation regime will continue to erode." Until nuclear disarmament is achieved, he said, non-nuclear weapon states should be given assurances, through a universal and legally binding treaty, that they will not be threatened with the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
The international legal regime must be strengthened in order to prevent militarization of outer space, he added. About Fissile Material Treaty (FMT), the ambassador said it should be conceived and negotiated as an integral part of the overall disarmament agenda with the genuine desire to ensure equal security for all, on non-discriminatory basis. "A lop-sided, uni-focal pursuit of an FMCT, driven by a non-proliferation prism, while soft-pedalling other core issues or relegating them to a back-burner has not succeeded in the past. It is not going to work in the future either."
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