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| April 21, 2007 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 03, 1428 |
Aziz urges fair criteria for N-tech transfer
CHENGDU, April 20: Pakistan on Friday criticised unilateral lifting of the decades-old embargo on cooperation with India on civilian nuclear technology by the United States and called upon the Nuclear Supplier Group to adopt a non-discriminatory and just criteria-based approach for offering such technology.
“Pakistan favours non-discriminatory, criteria-based approach, which will offer equal opportunities to both Pakistan and India to access civilian nuclear technology by meeting the relevant benchmarks,” said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz while speaking at the Sichuan University on “Pakistan’s perspective on contemporary issues of peace, security and development”.
He said Pakistan recognised the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as a serious threat to international peace and security and supported global non-proliferation objectives.
He said Pakistan was forced by India to conduct nuclear tests in 1998 to restore strategic balance in the region. Pakistan’s policy now centred on maintaining a minimum credible nuclear deterrent and the establishment of a Strategic Restraint Regime between India and Pakistan, he said.
Mr Aziz called for a just outcome of globalisation and said the contemporary international scenario was marked by fluidity and turbulence.
He deplored that the end of the Cold War did not yield the anticipated peace dividend and instead, the world witnessed renewed conflicts. The world economic order, he said, remained inequitable and while globalisation increased inter-connectedness, it also accentuated vulnerabilities of the weak. “The threats of terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, environmental degradation and trans-national crime acquired new, dangerous proportions.”
He said terrorism must be fought resolutely, in all its forms and manifestations, and the global response must be robust, but multi-dimensional, because military means did not provide the full answer.
He, however, emphasised to recognise and address the root causes, like poverty, deprivation, under-development and longstanding disputes resulting in desperation and hopelessness. He said terrorism must not be linked with any particular religion.
At the regional level, the prime minister said, Pakistan was working to promote an environment of peace and security to ensure national development and had launched far-reaching initiatives for stability and conflict resolution in the neighbourhood.
On the Afghanistan situation, Mr Aziz said unity, peace and stability of Afghanistan were in the interest of Pakistan and, therefore, it had played a critical role in facilitating peaceful presidential election in that country and made vital contribution to reconstruction there.
He said terrorism, extremism and Talibanisation were an equal threat to Pakistan and resolved not to allow anyone to use Pakistan’s territory for any cross-border activity. He said Pakistan had deployed about 90,000 troops on the Afghanistan border. He urged immediate repatriation of the three million Afghan refugees.
He said it was not the sole responsible of Pakistan to secure this long and porous border. “It is a responsibility also of Nato, ISAF, US and the Afghan government to take steps to prevent cross-border flows on the Afghan side.” He said the real factors of instability lied inside Afghanistan in the form of a weak state structure, nexus between narcotics and terrorism, warlords, corruption and inefficiency and slow pace of reconstruction.
He said Pakistan-India problems largely defined the security situation in South Asia and it was necessary to resolve outstanding issues, including Kashmir, through a dialogue process acceptable to India and Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
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