While seeking membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Pakistan has asked the group’s member states to recognise it as a nuclear weapon state.
Pakistan hosted a delegation of the MTCR at the Foreign Office here on February 18-19, 2013.
The MTCR delegation was led by its current chairman, Ambassador Joerg Ranau of Germany, and included the two incoming chairs, Ambassador Carlo Trezza of Italy and Ambassador Roald Naess of Norway. The Pakistani side was headed by Additional Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.
The MTCR is a multilateral export control arrangement comprising 34 members. It is aimed at controlling the proliferation of missiles and related technology through the implementation of certain export control guidelines. It was established in April 1987 by the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.
According to a diplomatic source, Pakistan, which is keen to join the group, discussed the issue with the visiting MTCR delegation. “In order to join the MTCR and other export control arrangements such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Pakistan has sought the help of the United States and is also engaged with other members of such global bodies,” according to the source, who requested anonymity. He said Pakistan also wanted the international community to recognise its status as a nuclear weapon state, and conveyed the message to the MTCR delegation.
According to a Foreign Office statement issued on Wednesday, the MTCR delegation praised the steps taken by Pakistan for bringing its export controls at par with the best international standards. Both sides exchanged views on a broad range of issues and agreed to continue their interaction in future, the statement added.
“On 12 February 2013, Pakistan held talks with a delegation of the Australia Group (AG) in Islamabad led by the United Kingdom. The AG is a forum of 40 industrialised countries that seeks to use licensing measures to ensure that the exports of certain chemicals and biological agents are not used for the spread of chemical and biological weapons,” the statement said.
Earlier, Pakistan held a trilateral meeting with the chairmanship troika of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), led by the United States. The meeting was hosted by Turkey in Ankara on January 23-24, 2013. The 47-member NSG works to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through implementation of guidelines to control nuclear and nuclear-related exports. Pakistan also participated for the first time in an outreach meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) on June 15, 2012, in Vienna. The WA is an export control arrangement on conventional arms, and Pakistan looks forward to further engagement with this group.
“These interactions are part of Pakistan’s concerted effort to engage with international export control regimes, in pursuance of the direction received from the National Command Authority (NCA) chaired by the prime minister,” said the statement.
The NCA, in its statement on July 14, 2011, had reiterated “Pakistan’s desire to constructively contribute to the realisation of a world free of nuclear weapons and to the goals of non-proliferation on the basis of equality and partnership with the international community. Accordingly, Pakistan was keen to join the four international export control arrangements.”
“Pakistan’s export control regime is compatible with the guidelines of the MTCR, NSG and AG. Pakistan hopes to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with all of these regimes, and would welcome cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, biology and chemistry as well as space science and technology, with any member of these groups, while maintaining a nuclear deterrent in the interest of regional peace and security,” the handout said.
“Pakistan is being viewed by the international community as a responsible nuclear weapon state that is firmly committed to the non-proliferation of WMDs and their delivery systems on a non-discriminatory basis. Pakistan welcomes the fact that all the international export control regimes have begun a process of engagement with it to advance the shared objectives of global non-proliferation,” it added.
