Pakistan assumes presidency of UN Conference on Disarmament

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan took the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD) on Monday, it vowed to act impartially in steering the body’s concluding work for the year, drawing a clear distinction between its role as chair and its longstanding national positions on contentious arms control issues.

Ambassador Tahir Hussain Andrabi, who is presiding over the CD meetings in Geneva, told Dawn that Islamabad’s responsibility as the final chair of the 2026 session was to ensure that the body’s annual report “reflects the discussions that took place, faithfully and in a balanced way”, even on issues where Pakistan has strong and clearly articulated positions.

“I would draw a clear distinction between Pakistan’s national position and Pakistan’s role as president,” Andrabi said. “In the Chair, our task is to reflect the discussions that took place, faithfully and in a balanced way.”

The distinction is significant because Pakistan has long been an active proponent of legally binding arrangements on issues including negative security assurances (NSAs) for non-nuclear weapon states and the Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), while maintaining a longstanding objection to a conventional fissile material cut-off treaty that does not address existing stocks.

Ambassador Andrabi vows impartiality; says Islamabad will distinguish chair’s role from its national positions on arms control

Pakistan’s approach prioritises non-discrimination and regional security calculations over the incremental, non-proliferation-focused steps preferred by the US and its allies.

Difficult time

Pakistan assumed the final presidency of the 2026 session at a particularly difficult time for the 65-member conference, which remains the world’s sole permanent multilateral negotiating forum for disarmament treaties but has been unable for more than two decades to agree on a substantive programme of work because of the requirement for consensus in decision-making.

Recalling that the conference had not been able to adopt a programme of work this year either, Andrabi noted that substantive discussions had nevertheless taken place throughout the session across the full range of its agenda.

The Foreign Office, while spelling out the priorities in a separate statement issued from Islamabad, said Pakistan’s presidency would focus on steering negotiations on the CD’s annual report and the corresponding resolution in the UN General Assembly’s First Committee.

Mr Andrabi has already begun consultations with previous presidents of the conference and representatives of regional groups.

“The task of the annual report is to reflect those discussions in a balanced and factual manner,” he said. “That is the responsibility entrusted to Pakistan as the final president of the session, and we intend to discharge it with impartiality.”

Against this backdrop, Pakistan’s own positions can make the task of chairing the concluding phase particularly sensitive.

Asked how Pakistan would advance its priorities on NSAs and PAROS while acting as president, Mr Andrabi said the two roles should not be conflated.

“Pakistan has long called for the negotiation of legally binding instruments on negative security assurances and on the prevention of an arms race in outer space,” he said, adding that Islamabad had reiterated these priorities during the year, “as have a number of other delegations”.

“But I would draw a clear distinction between Pakistan’s national position and Pakistan’s role as president,” he repeated. “The annual report records what the conference did; the substantive momentum on any agenda item has to come from the membership as a whole, and from the sessions ahead,” he asserted.

The comments underscore the limited but important role available to the final president of the annual session. Pakistan’s principal task is to build consensus around language that records the deliberations without prejudging future negotiations or reopening disputes that have prevented agreement on a programme of work.

The annual report, he said, would reflect those discussions “in a balanced and factual manner”.

The same approach, Mr Andrabi said, would apply to emerging issues such as the military applications of artificial intelligence and their implications for strategic stability.

Pakistan has had a proposal on emerging technologies before the conference since 2023, and the issue was again raised during this year’s discussions by Islamabad and several other delegations.

“The conference is the appropriate forum in which these issues can be considered, given that it brings together all states possessing nuclear weapons,” Mr Andrabi said.

But here too, he stressed that the chair would not give Pakistan’s own position a special status in the conference’s formal record.

“What weight the membership chooses to give these questions in future sessions is a matter for the membership of the conference to determine,” he maintained.

For Islamabad, however, the immediate test will be whether it can translate its stated commitment to impartiality into an annual report acceptable to all 65 members, while ensuring that the record adequately captures discussions on issues it has itself sought to advance.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2026