Pakistan greatest threat to world peace: India

In yet another stinging reply to Pakistan, India told the United Nations on Monday that there was a dangerous correlation between Pakistan's unchecked development of nuclear weapons and the close nexus between the state and jihadi groups, and this posed the greatest threat to the world.

Responding to a reference to Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistan's envoy to the Conference on Disarmament, Tehmina Janjua, Indian envoy Venkatesh Verma said, “The biggest threat to peace and stability comes from active promotion of terrorism and unbridled expansion of fissile material production and delivery systems for nuclear weapons under the shadow of a deeply disturbing and deeply entrenched nexus between state entities and non-state actors.“

The Indian response came after Janjua orally added a reference to the "Jammu & Kashmir dispute" to Pakistan's statement in the 'first committee' which concerns itself with disarmament and non-proliferation issues. The remark was not there in her written statement. Verma responded by reminding the UN that "nuclear proliferation linkages which are active today have clear Pakistan fingerprints".

Separately, Indian ambassador to Russia Pankaj Saran publicly rebuked Mo scow for its budding military relationship with Pakistan. In trenchant comments to news agency Ria Novosti, Saran said, “We have conveyed our views to the Russian side that military cooperation with Pakistan, which is a state that sponsors and practices terrorism as a matter of state policy, is a wrong approach. It will only create further problems.“

While this has been talked about in the government and among experts, this is the first time India has openly chided Russia for its flirtations with Pakistan.

In the UN, the Pakistani diplomat trod a beaten path by offering a set of "proposals" that have long been rejected by India - "simultaneous application of IAEA safeguards on all nuclear facilities and bilateral arrangement for their reciprocal inspections, simultaneous accession to NPT, regional CTBT".

"Just last month, our prime minister underlined Pakistan's resolve to main tain strategic stability in its region... expressed readiness to agree on a bilateral arrangement," Janjua said.

Verma, in response, described the Pakistani proposals as "self-serving" and said it was “ironic that a country whose non-proliferation track record is marked by obstructionism seeks to convince the international community on its self-serving proposals“.

"It is a matter of record that Pakistan is singularly responsible for blocking the international disarmament agenda and the Conference on Disarmament," he said.

Pakistan has blocked all movement on a fissile material cut-off treaty.