Pakistan welcomes P-5 statement on preventing nuclear war, avoiding arms race

• Pakistan calls P-5 statement preventing nuclear war "positive".
• Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar says understanding among the permanent members of UN Security Council can pave way for concrete measures for strategic stability.
• Says P-5 statement rightly acknowledges imperative to create conducive security environment for meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday that the joint statement by the P-5 on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races was a positive development.

“This understanding among the permanent members of the UN Security Council can pave the way for concrete measures for strategic stability at the global and regional levels,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.

He said as a responsible nuclear weapons state, Pakistan supported the objectives of global and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, in line with the stipulations of the First Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly (SSOD-I) – with equal and undiminished security being the defining consideration.

The spokesperson said the P-5 statement rightly acknowledged the imperative of creating a conducive security environment for meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament.

This will include addressing the underlying security concerns of states, pacific settlement of outstanding disputes, and cessation of destabilizing arms buildups that accentuated asymmetries, he added.

In the context of South Asia, the spokesperson said, Pakistan’s proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime, encompassing nuclear and missile restraint, conventional balance and settlement of disputes, could contribute significantly towards maintaining strategic stability and avoiding military conflict.

This will also entail eschewing misplaced notions of space for war in a nuclearised environment, he added.

“Pakistan fully agrees with the need for effective measures by all nuclear powers to guard against any unauthorised or unintended use of nuclear weapons,” the spokesperson reiterated.