Experts fear for future of NPT regime

Islamabad
Experts on Wednesday expressed disappointment over Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member states' failure to reach a consensus on how to progress on non-proliferation and disarmament and feared for the future of the regime.
The experts were speaking on the first day of the two-day national seminar organised by Islamabad based think tank Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on 'NPT Review Conference and Future of the Non-Proliferation Regime'.
The NPT Review Conference concluded last month at the UN Headquarters without a consensus document because of the opposition of the United States to a proposal for convening a conference on the establishment of the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone. Moreover, strong differences were seen at the Conference between nuclear weapons and non-nuclear weapons on the issue of disarmament.
The failure to reach a consensus document at the NPT Review Conference raises doubts about the willingness of the signatories to abide by their NPT commitments.
Director General Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) Ambassador Masood Khan said that with continuing emphasis on non-proliferation the future of disarmament was bleak.
Masood opined that the kind of exceptionalism extended to India in the shape of Indo-US nuclear deal and the plans for admitting it in Nuclear Suppliers Group prove that Pakistan's decision on not joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and conducting the nuclear tests was the right call.
He recommended that Pakistan should continue refining its nuclear deterrent to maintain it credibility.
In nuclear expert Brig Zahir Kazmi's view the non-proliferation regime had a mixed bag of progress. He said that while the world has far less nuclear weapons states (9) than was once feared (25) because of the non-proliferation regime, but still proliferation was taking place.
"All nuclear powers are believed to be vertically proliferating either in qualitative, quantitative or in both senses," Brig Kazmi said.
He suggested that for normalisation of the non-proliferation regime nuclear weapons states Pakistan, India and Israel should be "mainstreamed" into its various arrangements including Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Ambassador Tariq Osman Hyder in his presentation said that the outcome of the NPT Review Conference had disappointed all those who supported disarmament.
"The NPT is not the totality of the non-proliferation regime but its status does impact the regime and therefore has an impact upon, and is relevant to, Pakistan. Hence it repays close and continuing study on our part," he said.
Dr Tughral Yamin, associate dean Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, NUST, said that the biggest challenge to future of non-proliferation regime was from the failure to progress on disarmament.
He feared that the international non-proliferation regime could "collapse" due to the "short sightedness" of the Nuclear Weapon States, who are unwilling to give up their hegemony.
Dr Zafar Khan of National Defense University called for a combined and holistic approach by both nuclear and non nuclear weapon states for making the non-proliferation regime "non-discriminatory, flawless, effective, and universal".
President SVI Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said that the international non-proliferation regime was not only inadequate in dealing with instances of proliferation, but also undermined the objectives of the Article IV of the NPT on transfer of nuclear technology for exclusively peaceful purposes.