TOKYO, Aug 10: Pakistan on Wednesday hinted at reviewing its policy on UN reforms in favour of Japan if it dissociated itself from the G-4 group of states seeking permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

“If the G-4 composition changes, we will review our position. Our relations with Japan are historic, Japan is our largest creditor, the single largest contributor to our debt,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said during a breakfast meeting with international media here.

When a Japanese journalist asked if Pakistan would support Japan in its bid for a permanent seat on the Security Council if it left the G-4 group, the prime minister said: “If that framework changes, we will step back and see what to do.” However, he said it was a hypothetical question and the G-4 composition remained as it was.

The prime minister said UN reforms must be viewed holistically as the UN was a body which needed reforms and reinvention but reforms should not just relate to the UNSC alone, rather the entire UN family.

He said that Pakistan had a principled stand on UN reforms. It wanted reforms to be broad-based, equitable and democratic that did not create new classes of members within the current framework of the UN. Pakistan’s policy, he said, was not country-specific, rather it was generic and based on principles.

Mr Aziz said that Pakistan would not join an arms race with India but would maintain a minimum nuclear deterrence. Pakistan’s nuclear programme was aimed at maintaining strategic balance in South Asia, he added.

When his comments were sought on the nuclear programme of North Korea, he reiterated Pakistan’s position that the Korean peninsula should be a nuclear-free region, but said that every country had a right to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme under IAEA’s guidelines.

When asked whether the Dr A.Q. Khan network had any role in the Korean nuclear programme and whether Pakistan would play any role in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, he said Pakistan had no role in the Korean N-programme and whatever information it had gathered in association with the IAEA had been shared with Japan.

As for the Dr A.Q. Khan network, the prime minister said, the chapter stood closed.

He said Pakistan’s nuclear programme was defensive in nature and catered to its strategic needs.