BERLIN, April 4: Pakistan is opposed to nuclear and conventional arms race in South Asia and its priority continues to be economic revival, poverty eradication, good governance and strengthening of democracy, said Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar here on Friday.

Giving a speech on “Current challenges for Pakistan’s foreign policy,” he said, “Pakistan remains opposed to an open-ended arms race — nuclear or conventional in South Asia. For us, the priorities are continued economic revival, poverty eradication, good governance, and strengthening of democracy.”

Referring to Pakistan’s nuclear capability, he said, “our assessment that India was bent upon developing nuclear and missile capabilities compelled us to develop a countervailing capability in the event of India openly going nuclear. We were proved right in 1998.”

India conducted tests and threatened Pakistan with dire consequences over Kashmir, he added.

Mr Khokhar said: “We have established fail-safe custodial controls on our nuclear assets. There is no risk whatsoever of any unintentional release or leakage of technology.

“A National Command Authority oversees our strategic assets, ensures custodial safety, and exercises effective control over fissile material and sensitive technology. There is no risk of horizontal proliferation from Pakistan.

“This is against our national interest. This of course has not prevented prejudice and almost xenophobic smear campaign against Pakistan mainly from across our eastern border,” he added.

The foreign secretary said peace was imperative to promote stability and development in Pakistan and South Asia. For the last 55 years, India and Pakistan have been mired in conflict and strife.

What the people of the region, one fifth of humanity, need is peace and prosperity. They should be bound by a synergy for harmony and cooperation, not divided by hostility and confrontation, he added.

Mr Khokhar said: “We should be partners in commence, investment and economic collaboration; not chronic warriors locked in an eternal fight. This remains our overarching objective for the future of the region.”

This objective cannot be achieved unless the issue of Jammu and Kashmir was resolved. Kashmir issue cannot be swept under the carpet. It cannot be dispatched to the backburner. India has made futile attempts to tarnish the political struggle in Kashmir with the brush of terrorism, he added.

He said the UN Security Council has mandated resolution of this dispute through a fair and impartial plebiscite for ascertaining the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

He stressed this pledge had to be honoured. The character of the issue cannot be changed because of India’s self-serving campaign to demonize the Kashmiris’ aspirations.

He said India must stop its repression in Kashmir. To feed the myth that there was no problem in Kashmir and that Pakistan was responsible for all the problems there is to underwrite the oppression being carried out in the Indian occupied Kashmir.

India must agree to resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue and peaceful means. This should unlock the door towards normalization and cooperation, the foreign secretary added.

He said Pakistan had taken difficult decisions to prepare the way for dialogue.

Radical organizations were banned and their funding was cut off. Movement across the LoC went down drastically as a result of the measures taken by government, he said adding, “our promises were not a tactical retreat, but genuine effort to break the impasse. We expected reciprocity.” —APP