THE Conference on Disarmament, the world’s sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, has failed to produce any tangible solution for arms control or decommissioning of lethal weapons since the dawn of the twenty-first century. Rapid shifts in global politics and the growing influence of the cult of the offensive in States’ strategic decision-making have further constrained the Conference on Disarmament’s (CD) performance in 2026. Nevertheless, delegates in the CD are striving to reach a consensus on multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements to create global legal norms, even amid deep political disagreements.
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a successor to the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament. Today, it has 65 members. The CD meets in an annual session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The session is divided into three parts of 10, 7 and 7 weeks, respectively. The first week begins in the penultimate week of January. The 2026 CD session structure and schedule: Part I began on January 19 and ended on March 27; Part II began on May 11 and ended on June 26; Part III began on July 27 and will end on September 11.
The CD is presided over by its members on a rotating basis, in English alphabetical order. Each President presides for four weeks. Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway and Pakistan take the Presidency during 2026. Pakistan took the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD) on August 17, 2026. Ambassador Tahir Hussain Andrabi, while presiding over the CD meetings in Geneva, promised that as the final chair of the 2026 session, Pakistan will ensure that the CD’s annual report “reflects the discussions that took place, faithfully and in a balanced way.” He added, “I would draw a clear distinction between Pakistan’s national position and Pakistan’s role as president.”
Islamabad has maintained a firm, clear position on arms control issues at the CD. It prioritizes non-discrimination and regional security calculations over the incremental, non-proliferation-focused steps preferred by the US and its allies. Notably, its longstanding national positions on contentious arms control issues have annoyed the US-led Western bloc. The following discussion explains the distinction between Pakistan’s principal stances.
According to the 2026 CD agenda the core items are cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments.
The trends reveal that there will be no consensus on any core item of the agenda during Pakistan’s presidency. The substantive program of work requires a consensus in decision-making in the CD. So the CD has long faced a deadlock on negotiating core items due to a few states’ discriminatory approach. In 2011, there was a serious initiative to reform the CD to make it a practical forum rather than a mere debating institution. Besides, United Nations member states have started looking for alternative forums to pursue arms control and disarmament objectives. For instance, in 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Ban Treaty) was adopted through a dedicated United Nations conference in New York rather than the CD in Geneva.
Pakistan has always supported legally binding arrangements on issues including negative security assurances for non-nuclear weapon states (effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons) and has endorsed the Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) and maintained a principal stance on the resolution of the fissile material cut-off treaty (cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament). Pakistan recognizes the destabilizing potential of emerging technologies for international stability. In 2023, it submitted a proposal on emerging technologies at the CD, highlighting challenges posed by military applications of artificial intelligence, hypersonic systems and advanced conventional integration to regional and international stability. Along with other delegates, Islamabad had again raised the issue of emerging technologies. Ambassador Andrabi emphasized, “The conference is the appropriate forum in which these issues can be considered, given that it brings together all states possessing nuclear weapons.”
In summary, the increasing lethality of the killing machines due to the fabrication and integration of emerging technologies in military systems necessitates refurbishing treaties and conventions dealing with conventional and non-conventional weapons and also creating global legal norms to prevent the accidental and inadvertent use of these weapons. Thus, it’s the responsibility of CD members to act rationally and reach a consensus on the core items and emerging technologies to prevent the world from a devastating catastrophe.
—The writer is Vice Chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
