India reacts strongly to Pak proposal at disarmament forum

Having single-handedly stalled progress on the Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty at the Conference on Disarmament CD last year....

Having single-handedly stalled progress on the Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty at the Conference on Disarmament CD last year,Pakistan has started this year on an aggressive note by asking the Geneva-based CD to urgently consider a proposal on control of conventional arms at regional and sub-regional levels this time.

This sparked off an equally strong response from India,which has opposed last minute inclusion of any such proposal. India believes that the security concerns of states often extend beyond narrowly defined regions. Consequently,the idea of preservation of balance in this resolution is both unrealistic and unacceptable to India, stated the Indian delegation through a statement presented to the conference last week.

As a result,the CD could not adopt even its agenda of work,a customary procedure accomplished on the first day of the first plenary meet in a new year. Pakistans representative Zamir Akram was among the first few to take the floor on January 19 and made two suggestions:

Urgent consideration of issues involved in conventional arms control and regional and sub-regional level. Referring to a UN General Assembly Resolution on the subject that had suggested the CD to look into the matter,Akram said,We urge the Conference to act on this request,include this issue in the agenda and report to the General Assembly on the work done during the 2010 session in September.

A need for a global regime on missiles. The international community is witnessing a growing competition in missile technology. The CD must address this issue. Therefore,we propose to include the issue of missiles in all their aspects in the agenda of the conference.

India made the point that it had voted against the resolution on conventional arms control at the UNGA too,arguing that CD as the single multilateral disarmament negotiation forum has a vocation of negotiating disarmament instruments of global application,therefore India cast a negative vote on this resolution.

For Pakistan,however,the decision is said to flow from a January 13 meeting of its National Command Authority that met specifically to discuss the implications of Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoors remarks about India having to be prepared to meet a conventional challenge from both Pakistan and China. After that meeting,Pakistan has stepped up diplomatic pressure on conventional arms control strategies.

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These are issues of concern for India because they would open up the door to all other ideas linked with this like having a strategic restraint regime between India and Pakistan. Broadly,sources said,Islamabad is moving on two fronts first is to step up the rhetoric on conventional arms control and second is to stall work on the FMCT.

In doing so,Pakistan would expect the US to find a way out by taking an initiative that could somehow balance out the nuclear deal with India. Under immense domestic criticism for having not done enough to block the India-US nuclear deal,Pakistans military top brass is of the view that an FMCT would stunt the growth of its nuclear alternative and allow India to build on its conventional superiority.

Either way,the move in the CD came under much criticism from countries like Canada and Japan with the former even saying that reopening the agenda of work on the first day itself would open up a Pandoras box with all countries bound to move fresh suggestions. Other procedural alternatives were suggested but Pakistan was still not yielding ground.