ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani official on Wed­n­e­s­day underscored the imp­or­tance of the conference on disarmament, saying it was the only representative multilateral forum for negotiating appropriate disarmament frameworks.

Director General of Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs at Strategic Plans Division Brig Zahir Kazmi, while speaking at a seminar at Strategic Studies Institute in Islamabad on ‘Nuclear Arms Control: Challenges and Prospects’, said that the conference on disarmament, despite the stalemate in negotiations on disarmament frameworks, remained “the only disarmament forum that is highly representative and works through consensus”.

The CD, has for the past 22 years since the conclusion of the negotiations of the CTBT in August 1996, remained deadlocked and failed to reach a consensus on a programme of work, which could have led to commencement of substantive deliberations on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT), nuclear disarmament, prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS), and negative security assurances (NSAs).

The deadlock has been due to global non-proliferation politics and competing strategic security priorities of nuclear weapon states.

Brig Kazmi said that Pakistan cham­­pioned nuclear disarmament, PAROS and NSAs, but it had opposed initiation of negotiation on FMCT due to the scope of the proposed treaty and the country’s security compulsions.

Brig Kazmi said that despite “dismal arms control and disarmament outlook” efforts should continue negotiating treaties on issues that were ripe for discussions. “It’s important and valuable to keep working for arms control and disarmament even if it is on a ventilator,” he said, adding that it was important so that the world did not revert to anarchy or relived the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2019