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| April 12, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428 |
Demand for balanced security environment
UNITED NATIONS, April 11: Pakistan on Tuesday called upon the international community to establish a stable and balanced security environment in sensitive regions such as South Asia, Middle East and North East Asia to stem proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Addressing special session of the UN Disarmament Commission, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram said the multiplication of discrimination would not help in regional stabilization.
He said the discriminatory application of non-proliferation norms was eroding the diminishing commitment by states to these norms.
He said: “The demonstrated failure of coercion (and even military intervention) as a tool to counter proliferation, together with discriminatory application of non-proliferation norms, could embolden further breakouts from the NPT.”Mr Akram said: “The consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation has broken down, over time due to several negative developments because none of the five nuclear weapons states appears ready to foreswear nuclear weapons.”
“Some nuclear weapon states are seeking to develop new nuclear weapons, contravening their commitments and increasing the danger of the use of nuclear weapons and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which was supposed to be a central pillar for advancement of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation has no realistic prospect of coming into force any time soon.”
He said that it was important to normalize the relationship of the three non-NPT states—India, Pakistan and Israel -- with the non-proliferation regime and secure their support for a re-vitalized regime, Mr Akram stressed “reality and legality should be reconciled adding such normalization cannot be achieved by multiplying discrimination and double standards.”
Noting that "if new nuclear weapons are developed, resumed nuclear testing cannot be ruled out", he said "all states must commit themselves to implement agreed measures to prevent non-state actors from acquiring WMDs and their means of delivery.”Calling for a multilateral consensus on disarmament issues, Mr Akram told delegates that Pakistan had circulated a working paper which we hope could help to develop a new consensus on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.”
Reflecting “some may say that the commission has not lived up to its potential role; but then this is so for the rest of the United Nations’ disarmament machinery,” Mr Akram said.
He said: “This is not a failure of disarmament machinery; it is a failure of political will to advance on the disarmament and non-proliferation agenda.”
“The impasse reflects the political reality. The consensus on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation has virtually broken down. The most visible and recent manifestations of this breakdown were the absence of any agreement on disarmament at the 2005 UN Summit, the absence of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament, and the absence of outcome at the 2005 NPT Review Conference”, Akram noted.
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