ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: The Foreign Office said on Monday it was further tightening its non-proliferation export controls regime.

“A number of decisions were taken to further strengthen the export controls,” a foreign ministry spokesman said after a meeting of the oversight board of the Strategic Export Control Division (Secdiv). He did not elaborate.

The meeting, presided over by Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, was held to monitor the implementation of the Export Control Act 2004 and the functioning of Secdiv.

The decisions, a source said, pertained to improving export licensing procedures, streamlining the working of Secdiv and strengthening inter-agency coordination to achieve the objective of export controls.

Secdiv was set up in 2007 as part of the Foreign Ministry to administer export controls. Its creation was meant to fulfil international obligations of preventing proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons and missiles capable of delivering such weapons.

The participants, the spokesman said, reiterated Pakistan’s unequivocal commitment to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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