Pakistan PM warns against arms race in Asia

WASHINGTON, Tuesday (AFP) Surrounded by giants India and China and amid concerns over neighbouring Iran's nuclear ambitions, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz warned Monday against an arms race in the region.

"As a nuclear weapons state, we adhere to the doctrine of minimum credible deterrence and are opposed to any nuclear proliferation as well as an arms race in the region," he told a Washington forum.

Aziz, here for talks with US President George W. Bush and other senior administration officials, said Pakistan had proposed a "strategic restraint regime" to prevent an arms race and ensure that stability was maintained in the region.

He noted that India's nuclear tests in 1998 forced Pakistan "to respond in order to establish a credible nuclear deterrence. "Failure to do so could have created a dangerous ambiguity about our capacity and could have led to possible miscalculations," he said, stressing that Pakistan wanted to be an "anchor of peace and stability in the region."

Aziz did not speak of any new threats posed by India or other neighbours but emphasized without elaborating that any induction of anti-ballistic missile systems would have a destabilising impact on the entire region. The region is bristling with missiles.

India, flush with success of its medium-range ballistic missile, is reportedly developing an intercontinental ballistic missile. Pakistan has developed and tested a number of missiles while China, far ahead of others in the missile race in the region, has an arsenal of short and long-range missiles. On Iran, Aziz said relations with the fellow Islamic nation were "guided by compulsion of geography and history.

"We will like to work with Iran for peace and stability in the region and would welcome Iran's role as a responsible player to this end," he said.

Regarding the Iranian nuclear policy, he said Pakistan had clearly stated its opposition to nuclear weapons proliferation "but we respect Iran's right to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy" under safeguards imposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.

Aziz said that Russia and China should play a "constructive" role in resolving the current nuclear crisis involving Iran, adding that force should be avoided at all costs."We oppose any resort to use of force as this would aggravate the already troubled situation in the region," he said.

Allaying concerns over Pakistan's nuclear capability, the banker-turned-prime-minister said his country was "committed to the prevention of nuclear proliferation."