Nuclear arms race will set back disarmament efforts: Maleeha

ISLAMABAD, June 29 (APP): Pakistan has told the Security
Council that declared plans 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
criticized 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, she warned “would renew a nuclear arms race”.
She argued that disarmament and non-proliferation were organically
linked and criticized those Nuclear Weapon States that were neither
willing to give up their large inventories of nuclear weapons nor
their modernization 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 strong case for Pakistan’s NSG
membership by highlighting her country’s credentials as a credible
global partner in international non-proliferation efforts. She
expressed Pakistan’s commitment to Security Council’s resolution
1540 and told the Council that Pakistan had submitted its fifth
national implementation 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.
She emphasized the importance of staying a step ahead of non-
State actors, that seek to kill and maim innocent people by using
WMDs, especially in view of the rapid advancements in science and
technology. She called for leveraging the cooperative approach as
spirit of national ownership that resolution 1540 engendered.
Stressing the importance of supporting member states in need
of assistance for implementation of resolution 1540, Ambassador
Lodhi expressed Pakistan’s readiness to offer assistance to
interested states for capacity building, technical assistance and
training in collaboration with the 1540 Committee, in the areas of
regulatory infrastructure in export controls and nuclear security,
commodity identification training for enforcement officials,
training for licensing officers, internal compliance, industry
outreach and public awareness raising as well as specialized courses
in the field of nuclear safety and nuclear security, CWC-related
assistance and protection courses.