Imran Yaqub Dhillon
New York
Reiterating its support to the objectives of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (NTBT), Pakistan has reminded the
international community of its voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing since 1998, despite regional security threats.
“Pakistan remains committed to the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world,” Ambassador Muhammad Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, told a virtual meeting held at UN Headquarters in New York to commemorate the International Day against Nuclear Tests, observed annually on 29 August.
The Day has been commemorated annually since 2010.
The date 29 August marks the anniversary of the 1991 closure of the Semipalatinsk test site in Ka-zakhstan, the largest nuclear test site in the former Soviet Union.
Despite the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty(CTBT) in 1996, thousands of nuclear weapons remain at the ready in stockpiles across the world. In his remarks, the Pakistani representative said that Pakistan had made several proposals for keeping South Asia free of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery following the first nuclear tests in South Asia in 1974, but regretted none of them met a fa-vourable response. “Pakistan was not the first to conduct a nuclear test in South Asia and would not be the first to resume testing”, he told delegates from around the world. “Despite regional security threats, Pakistan has maintained a voluntary moratorium on nuclear test-ing since 1998,” Ambassador Khan added. “These tangible measures are a demonstration of Pakistan’s commitment to the objectives and purposes of the CTBT.”
Pakistan, he pointed out, had participated actively and constructively in the CTBT negotiations and had voted in favour at the time of its adoption in the General Assembly in 1996.
Pakistan had since then been voting in favour of the annual CTBT resolution in the General Assembly’s First Committee, which deals with disarmament and international security matters. Pakistan is also an accredited Observer State of the CTBTO Prepara-tory Committee and regularly attends its meetings. The Pakistani representative also urged the interna-tional community to recognize and address the key motivations that drive States to possess nuclear weapons.
