India and Israel Reject Pakistan-Backed UN Arms Control Draft

India and Israel have voted against a Pakistan-Belarus-backed draft resolution at the United Nations on conventional arms control at regional and subregional levels. India argued that security concerns extend beyond geographical boundaries and that conventional arms control should be treated as a global issue.

The draft resolution, titled “General and complete disarmament: Conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels,” was approved by the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Monday with 180 votes in favour, two against and no abstentions. India and Israel were the only two countries to vote against it in the 193-member UN body, according to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Why India Voted Against the UN Resolution

Explaining India’s position, Anmol Sher Bedi, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, said New Delhi was not convinced that conventional arms control should be pursued primarily through regional and subregional frameworks.

“We are not fully convinced that it should be pursued primarily in regional and sub-regional contexts,” Bedi said, according to PTI.

He added that India had voted against the resolution in line with its previous position. New Delhi also questioned the proposal asking the UN Disarmament Commission to consider developing principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements on conventional arms control.

Bedi pointed out that the commission had already reached consensus on three relevant sets of guidelines and recommendations:

• Guidelines and recommendations on regional disarmament adopted in 1993.
• Guidelines on conventional arms control and disarmament adopted in 1999.
• Recommendations on practical confidence-building measures involving conventional weapons adopted in 2017.

“That makes three consensus outcomes on this very subject in the very body now being asked to start from scratch,” Bedi said. He questioned the need for another round of deliberations on a subject that had already been discussed extensively.

“We fail to understand why a subject already deliberated at length needs another round of deliberation unless the aim is to keep the UN disarmament machinery busy,” he added.

India Says Security Concerns Extend Beyond Regional Borders

India also objected to the resolution’s approach to maintaining a balance in defence capabilities within a particular region or subregion.

According to Bedi, the approach assumes that countries’ security concerns are restricted by geographical boundaries, which India does not accept.

“This assumes that the security concerns of States politely stop at their regional borders. They do not,” he said.

He further argued that countries’ security concerns extend beyond narrowly defined regions and subregions, making the idea of preserving a military balance within a limited geographical area unrealistic.

“Those concerns, as everyone understands for well-known reasons, extend beyond narrowly-defined regions and subregions. More importantly, the notion of preserving balance in a region or a subregion appears unrealistic,” Bedi said.

What Does the Pakistan-Belarus-Backed Resolution Propose?

The draft resolution argues that conventional arms control should primarily be pursued at regional and subregional levels because many threats to international peace and security in the post-Cold War period arise among countries within the same geographical region.

It also calls for agreements aimed at strengthening regional peace and security while maintaining “the lowest possible level of armaments and military forces”.

The resolution further states that militarily significant countries and states with greater military capabilities have a special responsibility to promote regional security agreements.

India Also Opposes Reference to South Asia Arms Control Proposals

India separately voted against a paragraph referring to conventional arms control proposals made in the context of South Asia.

The paragraph expressed particular interest in initiatives undertaken in different regions, including consultations among some Latin American countries and proposals for conventional arms control in South Asia. It also acknowledged the relevance of such measures to regional security.

India’s opposition to the draft resolution and the separate paragraph reflects its position that conventional arms control cannot be assessed solely through regional or subregional frameworks, as national security concerns may extend beyond those boundaries.