ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has branded India's claims about its disbarment record as "dubious," accusing New Delhi of pioneering nuclear proliferation in South Asia and inflaming regional and international tensions.
"It was India who handed the non-proliferation standards a death blow by conducting its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by additional nuclear tests in 1998," Pakistani delegate Mohammad Omar said the Conference on Disarmament, which is now meeting in Geneva.
Omar claimed that India performed the test by diverting material from the CIRUS reactor, which he claimed was in breach of the country's supplier safeguards.The envoy's remarks were in response to Indian Ambassador Pankaj Sharma's statement, in which he chastised his Pakistani colleague for bringing up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir while discussing bilateral and regional concerns.
New Delhi's contribution to disarmament, Sharma asserted, was commendable, as were its credentials.He further stated that Jammu and Kashmir was an intrinsic part of India, accusing Pakistan of knowingly exporting terrorism. Omar, who is the First Secretary at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, used his right of reply to bring out that India has consistently opposed the formalisation of a nuclear test moratorium in South Asia.
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