India's 'new normal' a serious threat to peace

At UN, Pakistan warns of hitting back at India with 'greater ferocity' if attacked again

GENEVA:

A senior Pakistani diplomat has warned India that it will respond with "greater ferocity and resolve" if attacked again as he drew attention of the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva to the recent hostilities between the two South Asian nations.

"South Asia does not need another crisis — It requires a future shaped by cooperation, not confrontation," Ambassador Bilal Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN offices in Geneva, told the 65-member forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements, which began its session on Tuesday.

"If India chooses the path of aggression again, the consequences — and the responsibility — will lie entirely at its door," he said, warning, "Pakistan will stand ready to meet any Indian aggression at every escalating level with greater ferocity and resolve".

Pakistan, Ambassador Bilal Ahmad added, will adhere to the ceasefire, pointing out that its preference remains unchanged: constructive engagement, result-oriented dialogue, and the peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

He said that India's illegal threat and use of force against a nuclear-armed neighbour, now in shape of the Indian leadership's revisionist posture — the so-called "new normal — poses a serious threat to strategic stability in South Asia.

Indeed, India's missile, drone, and air strikes on Pakistani territory earlier this month were part of a larger pattern aimed at "normalizing the idea that military strikes between nuclear-armed states are acceptable," the Pakistani envoy told delegates.

"India seeks to normalize the idea that military strikes between nuclear-armed states are acceptable; that military losses are tolerable if the political narrative can be managed; that phantom victories can be claimed while real setbacks are denied — even when exposed by international media."