Tag: FO

  • Pakistan rejects talks with TTP, says Foreign Office

    Pakistan rejects talks with TTP, says Foreign Office

    Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch has said that Pakistan has rejected any suggestion to negotiate with the terrorist organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

    In the FO’s weekly media briefing, Baloch said, “As i said in the past, Pakistan has no plans to engage in any talks with TTP. We believe that such offers are an affront to thousands of victims of TTP, who have been killed in Pakistan.”

    She added, “Pakistan advises Afghan authorities to take action against TTP and other terror groups that continue to threaten Pakistan’s security and who have been involved in the killing of Pakistani nationals in Pakistani territory.”

    She pointed out that Islamabad has strong evidence of Afghanistan soil being used for terrorist activities in Pakistan and expected that the Afghan government will take action against terror groups.

    Regarding India’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Pakistan, Baloch remarked, “I can confirm that invitations have been extended to all Heads of Government of SCO member countries, including the prime minister of India.”

  • No resumption of trade with India: Pakistan Foreign Office

    No resumption of trade with India: Pakistan Foreign Office

    The Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad confirmed on Friday that no talks about the resumption of trade between India and Pakistan are taking place, citing India’s illegal steps taken in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in 2019.

    FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, addressing a weekly press briefing, recalled that the decision to suspend trade with India was taken after 2019, saying, “This situation remains intact.”

    She also condemned the killing of four Kashmiri youths by Indian occupation forces in the Doda district, emphasising that the brutal act was yet another example of India’s oppression of the Kashmiri people.

    The FO spokesperson also spoke on Afghan border issues, condemned the recent clash of both forces on August 12 and called on Afghanistan to avoid unprovoked acts.

  • ‘Not bound by it’: Pakistan questions legitimacy of UN treaty on nuclear weapons

    ‘Not bound by it’: Pakistan questions legitimacy of UN treaty on nuclear weapons

    Pakistan says it is not bound by any of the obligations enshrined in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — adopted in July 2017 — as the accord failed to take on board the “legitimate interests of all the stakeholders”.

    The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted by the UN in 2017 and it reached 50 ratification in October by Austria, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, and Thailand among other countries.

    In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, Islamabad said this treaty neither forms a part of nor contributes to the development of customary international law in any manner.

    According to the statement, the treaty was negotiated outside the established UN disarmament negotiating forums.

    “None of the nuclear-armed states, including Pakistan, took part in the negotiations of the treaty which failed to take on board the legitimate interests of all the stakeholders. Many non-nuclear armed states have also refrained from becoming parties to the treaty,” it added.

    “The United Nations General Assembly, at its first special session devoted to nuclear disarmament in 1978, had agreed by consensus that in the adoption of disarmament measures, the right of each state to security should be kept in mind, and at each stage of the disarmament process, the objective would be undiminished security for all states at the lowest possible level of armaments and military forces,” the statement said.

    The FO said the nuclear prohibition can only be achieved “as a cooperative and universally agreed undertaking through a consensus-based process involving all the relevant stakeholders which results in equal and undiminished security for all states”.

    “It is indispensable for any initiative on nuclear disarmament to take into account the vital security considerations of each and every state,” the FO statement implored.