SPEAKING at an international seminar on ‘The Present and Future of Strategic Export Controls’ in Islamabad, Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. She also declared that Pakistan recognised the necessity of exercising effective control on transfers of sensitive goods and technologies to prevent their misuse and divergence but at the same time, all states have legitimate interest in accessing dual use technologies for genuine socio-economic development needs.
Pakistan has all along been behaving as a responsible nuclear power and in this regard it not only repeatedly expressed its desire to have a bilateral arrangement with India to make this region safe from nuclear weapons but also acceded to a number of international instruments aimed at promoting international peace and security. These include Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Facilities, Nuclear Safety Conventions, and the IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources. It has also entered into a tripartite arrangement with suppliers and the IAEA for effective nuclear safeguards as per requirements of the international law. As pointed out by the Foreign Secretary Pakistan’s export control regime is consistent with the standards followed by Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime and the Australia Group. Elements of nuclear safety in Pakistan include robust command and control system led by National Command Authority, rigorous regulatory regime, comprehensive export control regime and international cooperation. Despite all this, some regional and global powers frequently spearhead malicious campaign against Pakistan on presumptions and notional basis in line with their known anti-Pakistan bias and nuclear apartheid. Discriminatory treatment with Pakistan with regard to civil nuclear cooperation and unilateral termination of an international agreement with Iran by the US are some of the causes that create resentment in the Muslim world.
Source : https://pakobserver.net/commitment-to-non-proliferation/
