Pakistan has taken steps to prevent non-state actors from obtaining and using chemical and biological weapons, a senior Pakistani diplomat has told the United Nations, while sharing international community’s concern over the danger of such arms falling into the wrong hands.

“We have taken a series of measures to counter this risk,” Ambassador Faruk Amil, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, told the General Assembly’s Disarmament and International Security Committee.

In this regard, he said that Pakistan supported the Russian proposal for the elaboration of an international convention for the suppression of acts of chemical and biological terrorism in the Conference on Disarmament.

Ambassador Amil, who was participating in a debate on weapons of mass destruction, said Pakistan condemns the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere. “Those responsible for such deplorable acts must be identified and held accountable.”

The Pakistani envoy said the conventions on biological and chemical weapons were two important pillars of the international security architecture. Both had made significant contributions to the goal of general and complete disarmament by prohibiting two entire categories of weapons of mass destruction.

Pakistan, he said, had prioritized the universalization of the Biological Weapons Convention and the balanced implementation of all its articles. However, the most sustainable method of strengthening the instrument was through multilateral negotiations aimed at concluding a legally binding protocol that also addressed verification and the implementation of all articles.

Pakistan was also fully committed to the Chemical Weapons Convention and continues to actively and constructively participate in the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Ambassador Amil said.

Ambassador Amil said Pakistan also attached high priority to provisions of the Convention relating to international cooperation and assistance as well as the peaceful uses of chemical technology.