Pakistan doesn't want arms race in South Asia: Farukh Amil

Ambassador voices concern over growing transfer of conventional armaments to volatile regions

Against the backdrop of India's weapons-buying spree,  Pakistan has expressed its concerns over the growing transfer of conventional armaments to volatile regions.

"It has the potential to jeopardise regional balance," Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva Farukh Amil said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly's Disarmament and International Security Committee, Radio Pakistan reported.

He added that this troubling trend could be seen in South Asia where one state's military spending grossly overshadowed all others.

Amil said Pakistan was committed to the establishment of strategic stability in South Asia.



"Pakistan neither wants, nor is it engaged in an arms race in the region," he maintained.

Earlier this year, India allocated INR2.74 trillion for the country’s military spending for the upcoming fiscal year, an increase of 9.5 per cent compared to the previous year’s INR2.49 trillion.

A Stockholm-based think-tank reported earlier this year that India was the world’s largest importer of major arms in the last five years and its overseas procurement was far greater than that of China and Pakistan.

As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report, India accounted for 13 per cent of the total global arms import between 2012–16 which is highest among all the countries.



In June, the Trump administration authorised the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone to India.

The deal involves the sale of 22 unarmed drones, worth more than $2 billion.

India has also signed a $2.5 billion missile deal with Israel wherein both nations will jointly develop a medium range surface-to-air missile system for the Indian military.