ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was unanimously elected as chair of the UN Disarmament Commission this week, state-run media reported on Tuesday, amid rising geopolitical tensions and global conflicts.
A vital subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, the commission prepares proposals for the regulation, limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and armaments, including the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.
Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, was elected as the commission’s chair when its 2024 session kicked off on Monday.
“Pakistan has been unanimously elected Chairman of the UN Disarmament Commission at its 2024 session,” state-run Radio Pakistan said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, told the commission that India’s large-scale arms acquisitions and its aggressive military policies have turned the security environment in South Asia “volatile and explosive.”
“Needless to say, these developments impinge on Pakistan’s security,” Akram said, calling on the world to address this issue.
Without naming India, Akram said South Asia’s security environment has deteriorated sharply in recent years as the region’s largest state has embarked on a program of “massive armament.”
“It (India) is now the world’s largest arms importer, and is being supplied by its strategic partners with nuclear, missiles, conventional and other destabilizing weapons,” he noted.
Arch rivals India and Pakistan are among the eight official nuclear powers in the world. Others include United States, Russia, Britain, China, France and North Korea while Israel is known to have them unofficially.
Pakistan’s appointment as chair comes at a time when Israel’s war on Gaza threatens to engulf other parts of the Middle East and amid Russia and Ukraine’s continuing armed conflict.