Islamabad: Pakistan today said it was against arms race in South Asia and hoped that the international community would not contribute to creating further asymmetry in conventional weapon in the region.
Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at weekly briefing that Pakistan had repeatedly spoken against the armament, both conventional and nuclear, race in the region.
"We would expect that the international community will not contribute to creating further asymmetry in conventional weapon in South Asia. Of course, there is already asymmetry which should not be further aggravated," she said in a veiled reference to India over its reported weapons buying spree.
The spokesperson said that "South Asia is a poor region and countries of this region need to focus on economic uplift of their people rather than engaging in arms race".
Speaking over cross-border casualties, she said that the Indian diplomats were summoned twice yesterday to lodge protest over the matter.
"In the first case, first secretary was summoned by Director India to protest unprovoked firing on the LoC in which 70-year-old man was killed and in the second, the acting High Commissioner summoned by Director General (South Asia) to register protest over the killing of an inadvertent crosser in violation of Border Ground Rules," she said.
She said that in the protest note, the Indian side was reminded them of their responsibility under bilateral understandings to protect civilians and their responsibility to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Control.
To a question, she said that since India canceled the scheduled Foreign Secretary level talks, now, the onus is on India to restart it.
Talking about the track-II diplomacy, she said it involved non-governmental dialogue and there are many forums in which Pakistani and Indian, people from the private sectors and think-tanks, come together.
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