Pakistan on Wednesday declared that it wants that the Conference on Disarmament (CD) to pursue a balanced approach, taking into account the well-established principle of equal and undiminished security for all states.
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit, in response to a question about news reports concerning the current impasse in the Conference on Disarmament, said that Pakistan attached immense importance to the work of the CD, as a sole multilateral forum for arms control and disarmament negotiations.
"Pakistan, along with several other countries, was of the firm view that the CD should have a balanced approach and pursue all items on its agenda, taking into account the well-established principle of equal and undiminished security for all states," he stated in categorical terms.
The remarks came following the news reports cited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Tuesday statement to the opening of the year first session of CD in which he warned that the conference could fail because of a three-year impasse over Pakistan's reluctance to discuss nuclear power.
Established in 1979, the CD is a forum established by the international community to negotiate multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. It is a forum used by its member states, currently around 65, to negotiate the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. However, a deadlock in this regard has stopped the CD moving forward since the conference emerged in May 2009 from 12 years of obscurity.