Amid clouds of insurmountable pressure during the ongoing debate on Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Pakistan has pointed out discriminatory waiver granted to India for nuclear co-operation by several major powers, as the reason for its disagreement with the treaty.
Pakistan has clearly stated that it could not agree to FMCT because the discriminatory waiver given to India would further accentuate the asymmetry in fissile material stockpile in the region, to detriment Pakistan's security interests. The issue of fissile material is primarily critical to Pakistan since India had Indo-US nuclear deal and subsequent deals with Russia, UK and France, said Dr Shireen Mazari, CEO Strategic Technology Resources (STR) at a media briefing, here on Wednesday.
"We may accept the FMCT in about five to seven years down the road because by then, we will have built up a proportional fissile reserve to India's as a result of our plutonium production picking up. But right now we can only go for a FMT as an FMCT would be suicidal," she added.
Dr Mazari pointed out that while the US and its allies are determined to achieve a FMCT, they are ignoring the other agenda of the conference and this has been pointed out by Pakistan's ambassador time and again. Referring to campaign launched by the US media declaring Pakistan had now over 100 nuclear weapons produced at a fast pace, she said whenever there is debate on FMCT, pressure is built up on Pakistan.
While addressing a plenary meeting on February 1, the ambassador had said that no international treaty was possible, if it ran counter the national interests of one of the member states. Pakistan also welcomed the acknowledgement by the UN Secretary-General that the inertia in the conference had lasted more than a decade. The fault did not lie with Pakistan but with certain major powers.
Pakistan has taken the initiative to break the deadlock by proposing that the conference takes up the three agenda items on which there is an evolving consensus: nuclear disarmament, negative security assurances and Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (Paros), she added.
Dr Mazari stated that it was time for Pakistan officials to stop being apologetic about our nuclear development. For instance, she said India has been evolving conventional strategies such as cold start, pre-emptive war, limited war was well as low intensity warfare doctrines in order to get out of nuclear deterrence stalemate in a way. Established in 1979, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is mandated to negotiate multilateral disarmament treaties.