ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Tuesday said its offer to India for bilateral non-testing arrangement of nuclear weapons was reflective of its policy of promoting restraint and responsibility in South Asia.
“The bilateral non-testing arrangement, if mutually agreed, could become binding immediately without waiting for the entry into force of the CTBT at the international level,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement on Tuesday.
The spokesman was responding to media queries with reference to Pakistan’s offer to India for a bilateral arrangement on non-testing of nuclear weapons, announced by Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on August 12.
Zakaria said that following the nuclear tests in 1998, Pakistan had proposed to India simultaneous adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The proposal, however, did not elicit a favourable response from India.
The foreign office spokesman said that Pakistan has once again indicated the possibility that the two countries may consider a bilateral arrangement, in the larger interest of peace and stability in the region, as well as in the global context.
The spokesman said that Pakistan has indicated the possibility that the two countries may consider a bilateral arrangement, which showed its consistent support for the objectives of the CTBT.
Nafees Zakaria said that while the unilateral moratoriums declared by the two countries were voluntary, legally non-binding and could be withdrawn unilaterally, a bilateral arrangement will be mutually binding and difficult to withdraw from unilaterally.
Both countries could consider working out the details of the arrangement and mutually agreed confidence-building measures in relation to it, he said.
The spokesman said that it could set the tone for further mutually agreed measures on restraint and avoidance of arms race in South Asia.
Moreover, he said that a bilateral arrangement on non-testing will also send a positive signal to the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) countries which were discussing the non-proliferation commitments of non-NPT states in relation to the question of membership.
