United Nations, Oct 10:
India has warned Pakistan against treating nuclear weapons as routine instruments of statecraft, asserting that New Delhi will not bow to nuclear blackmail and that such a posture could increase the risk of escalation.
India exercised its Right of Reply at a plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on Friday, responding to remarks by Pakistan that raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Anmol Sher Singh Bedi, Senior Adviser (Disarmament) at India’s Permanent Mission to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, reiterated that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral and inalienable part of India. He said India did not seek conflict and had consistently pursued peace.
Bedi said India’s security capabilities were defensive in nature and shaped by its security environment, rather than directed against any particular country. While acknowledging concerns about escalation, he said these should be assessed in the light of the conduct of the countries involved over time.
He warned that relying on the threat of nuclear weapons to restrict the consequences of activities below the threshold of conventional warfare could heighten tensions rather than promote restraint. India maintained that accountability for reckless actions was essential to ensuring that peace did not become merely a pause between successive crises.