Pakistan Promotes “Strategic Restraint Regime”

Pakistan is proposing a “strategic restraint regime” for South Asia that includes a prohibition on development of missile defense systems, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said today (see GSN, Aug. 7).

The proposal calls for restraint in deployment of nuclear weapons and missiles, a balance in conventional forces and conflict resolution, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

“We have elaborated this proposal both in on nuclear and conventional [confidence-building measures] expert-level talks with India,” Kasuri said.

An antiballistic missile system could destabilize the region and cause an arms race, he said.  India has expressed reservations about the proposal (see GSN, Aug. 18, 2003).  Kasuri noted, though, that the two countries have previously signed bilateral confidence-building agreements, including a 1988 ban on strikes against nuclear facilities and a 2005 policy of advance notification of ballistic missile flight tests (see GSN, June 28, 2004).

Pakistan will maintain a minimum strategic deterrent, Kasuri said at an international seminar on “Ballistic Missiles and South Asian Security.”

“We are not oblivious to our security requirements,” he said (Associated Press of Pakistan/BBC Monitoring, Aug. 23).

Kasuri also reiterated Pakistan’s concerns about the U.S.-Indian nuclear technology deal, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported (see related GSN story, today).

“The objective of strategic stability in South Asia would be better served under a package approach for Pakistan and India with a view to preventing a nuclear arms race in the region as both are non-[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] states” (Associated Press of Pakistan/BBC Monitoring, Aug. 23).

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