Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is committed to nuclear disarmament in a manner that promotes peace, security and stability at regional and global levels, said Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Monday.

In a statement on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, Zakaria said Pakistan was committed to the goal of a nuclear weapons free world through a universal, non-discriminatory and comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons.

“The Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD), the world’s single multilateral disarmament negotiating body, remained the most ideal forum for concluding such a convention,” the FO spokesperson said.

The United Nations General Assembly, at its first special session devoted to nuclear disarmament in 1978, had agreed by consensus that in the adoption of disarmament measures, the right of each state to security should be kept in mind, and the objective at each stage of the disarmament process would be undiminished security for all states at the lowest possible level of armaments and military forces.

Nafees Zakaria said Pakistan believed that this cardinal objective could only be achieved as a cooperative and universally agreed undertaking, through a consensus-based process involving all the relevant stakeholders, which resulted in equal and undiminished, if not increased security for all states. “It is indispensable for any initiative on nuclear disarmament to take into account the vital security considerations of each and every state,” he said.

“The Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by a vote on 7 July 2017 in New York, could not fulfill these essential conditions – both in terms of process and substance. Treaties that cannot fully take on board the interests of all stakeholders fail to achieve their objectives,” he said.

“Pakistan, therefore, like all the other nuclear armed states, cannot take part in its negotiation and cannot become a party to this treaty. Pakistan cannot consider itself bound by any of the obligations enshrined in this treaty. Pakistan stresses that this treaty neither form a part of, nor contribute to the development of customary international law in any manner,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, August 8^th 2017.