Hina Khar reiterates Pakistan's proposal for renewed paradigm for arms control

Islamabad: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday reiterated Pakistan's proposal for a renewed paradigm for arms control at regional and global levels.

In a video statement at High-level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament on Thursday, she said the renewed paradigm of arms control will restore trust both inside and outside this conference.

Hina Rabbani said military expenditures are reaching new heights and arms races evident across multiple domains.

The Minister of State said there is clear resistance by leading technology holders to limit or regulate new and lethal tools of modern warfare.

She said the global security order today is in a state of disarray.

Hina Rabbani Khar said this body must find ways to address the existing and emerging risks to security and stability at the international and regional levels.

“The largest country in the region continues to be a beneficiary of nuclear exceptionalism, in violation of established non-proliferation norms and principles,” she told a high-level UN panel — without naming India — by video-link from Islamabad.

“This country also remains a net recipient of generous supplies of advanced conventional and non-conventional weapons, technologies and platforms,” the minister added.

The minister said that the favours being done to India were straining the security environment; heightening risks to peace and stability in the region; reinforcing a sense of impunity in the recipient state and freezing pathways to conflict resolution through peaceful means.

“Even as we adhere to and call for restraint and responsibility, we cannot ignore threats to our security,” she told delegates from around the world.

Emphasizing that a third of humanity that lives in South Asia deserves investments in sustainable peace and development, Khar said Pakistan had a clear vision and a policy for peaceful neighbourhood on the basis of universally agreed principles; sovereign equality and undiminished security for all States; no threat or use of force and pacific settlement of disputes.

“We will pursue the path of peace, development and strategic stability in South Asia and beyond, I can assure you of that,” she said, adding that Pakistan regards the Conference on Disarmament as an indispensable part of the global security architecture and the disarmament machinery.