Pakistan ‘not bound by treaty’ prohibiting nuclear weapons

Pakistan on Friday said it did not consider itself bound by any of the obligations enshrined in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted in July 2017, and was negotiated outside the established United Nations disarmament negotiating forums.

“None of the nuclear-armed states, including Pakistan, took part in the negotiations of the Treaty which failed to take on board the legitimate interests of all the stakeholders. Many non-nuclear armed states have also refrained from becoming Parties to the Treaty,” the Foreign Office was quoted as saying in an official statement.

According to the statement, the United Nations General Assembly, at its first special session devoted to nuclear disarmament in 1978, had agreed by consensus that in the adoption of disarmament measures, the right of each state to security should be kept in mind, and at each stage of the disarmament process, the objective would be undiminished security for all states at the lowest possible level of armaments and military forces.

“Pakistan believes that this cardinal objective can only be achieved as a cooperative and universally agreed undertaking, through a consensus-based process involving all the relevant stakeholders, which results in equal and undiminished security for all States. It is indispensable for any initiative on nuclear disarmament to take into account the vital security considerations of each and every State,” it added.

“Pakistan stresses that this Treaty neither forms a part of, nor contributes to the development of customary international law in any manner,” it further read.