ISLAMABAD, March 31: Pakistan has urged the international community to collectively work towards a new security consensus to attain the desired objectives of disarmament and non-proliferation.

The plea was made by Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva Masood Khan while addressing the 65-member Conference on Disarmament.

According to a dispatch received from Pakistan’s permanent mission in Geneva Ambassador Khan said the global security structure was in a state of flux and a new security consensus ought to be developed to address existing and emerging global challenges.

Cautioning against unilateralist approaches, he said: “We must promote a consensus through consultations and agreement among all UN member states.

In a specific reference to South Asia, the Pakistani ambassador advocated a non-discriminatory approach and asserted: “In order to maintain strategic deterrence, we need to take into account the existing stocks of fissile materials.”

He added: “One can only presume that over time fissile material stocks would be transformed into nuclear weapons.”

He underscored that a fissile material treaty, whenever it was negotiated, should guarantee international and effective verification and should address the question of existing stocks.

Ambassador Khan emphasised the need for legally binding assurances to non-nuclear weapon states and intensification of efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space.

The Conference on Disarmament, which concluded its first session of the current year, has been stalled over a programme of work.

Pakistan’s representative called on the conference to promote genuine multilateralism to resolve its problems.

He said: “Multilateralism requires states to have a long-term view and to transcend their national positions. It is not a simple aggregation of national interests, because no such aggregation is possible given varied interests of states. Multilateralism if anything is the sum of “enlightened self- interest”.

The conference is the sole multilateral negotiating forum on disarmament.