P-5 statement can pave way for strategic stability: FO

Pakistan on Thursday said that the joint statement by the P-5 – permanent members of the UN Security Council – on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races was a positive development.

On January 3, the leaders of P-5 countries – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – released a joint statement that said they considered the avoidance of war between nuclear-weapon states and the reduction of strategic risks as their foremost responsibilities.

“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” it added.

“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.

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The spokesperson said that 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 destabilising 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 forgoing 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.