Nuclear arms race will be a setback for disarmament efforts: Maleeha
islamabad — Pakistan has told the Security Council that plans declared by one nuclear weapons state to expand its nuclear capabilities would renew an arms race and seriously set back global disarmament efforts.
Speaking in the Security Council debate on ‘Global efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by non-State actors’, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, criticised one of the P-5 states that has vowed to “greatly strengthen and expand nuclear capabilities by outmatching and outlasting potential competitors,” says a message received here on Thursday.
These plans, she warned, “would renew a nuclear arms race”.
She argued that disarmament and non-proliferation were organically linked and criticised those nuclear weapon states that were neither willing to give up their large inventories of nuclear weapons nor their modernisation programmes, even as they pursue non-proliferation with messianic zeal.
She also pointed out that grant of discriminatory waivers to some and making exceptions out of power or profit considerations remained a key challenge to non-proliferation norms and rules.
These “special arrangements”, she warned, carry obvious proliferation risks and open up the possibility of diversion of the material intended for peaceful uses to military purposes, in addition to undermining regional strategic stability.
The Pakistani envoy made a > Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, says one of the P-5 states plan to strengthen and expand nuclear capabilities will trigger new arms race. > Grant of discriminatory waivers to some and making exceptions out of power or profit strong case for Pakistan’s NSG membership by highlighting her country’s credentials as a credible global partner in international nonproliferation efforts. She expressed Pakistan’s commitment to Security Council’s resolution 1540 and told the Council that Pakistan had submitted its fifth national implementation considerations remain a key challenge to non-proliferation norms and rules. > The envoy says Pakistan has a strong case for NSG membership because it is a credible global partner in international nonproliferation effort. report as a manifestation of that commitment.
Ambassador Lodhi called for strengthening the non-proliferation regime through a transparent, objective and non-discriminatory criteria that ensured equal treatment of non-NPT applicants for the NSG’s membership.
Pakistan has strong case for NSG membership