India and Israel have voted against a Pakistan- and Belarus-sponsored draft resolution at the united nations seeking conventional arms control at regional and subregional levels, with New Delhi arguing that national security concerns cannot be restricted by geographical boundaries.The draft resolution, titled ‘General and complete disarmament: Conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels’, was adopted by the UN general assembly’s First Committee on Monday, receiving 180 votes in favour, two against and no abstentions.According to the news agency PTI, India and Israel were the only two countries among the 193 UN member states to oppose the resolution.Explaining India’s position, Anmol Sher Bedi, first secretary at India’s permanent mission to the UN, maintained that conventional arms control was a global issue and should not be addressed 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 while presenting India’s explanation of vote before the UNGA first committee.He added that New Delhi’s opposition was in line with its consistent position on the matter.India also raised questions over the resolution’s call for the UN disarmament commission to develop principles that could provide a framework for regional agreements on conventional arms control.“We read this request with a certain degree of curiosity,” Bedi said, pointing out that the commission had already reached three consensus-based outcomes on related issues.These included guidelines and recommendations on regional disarmament adopted in 1993, guidelines on conventional arms control and disarmament finalised in 1999, and recommendations on practical confidence-building measures concerning conventional weapons agreed upon in 2017.“That makes three consensus outcomes on this very subject in the very body now being asked to start from scratch,” he said.Questioning the need for further discussions, Bedi said it was difficult to understand why an issue that had already undergone extensive deliberations needed to be taken up again, unless the intention was to keep the UN’s disarmament machinery occupied.India also criticised the resolution’s emphasis on maintaining a balance in defence capabilities within regional and subregional settings.Bedi argued that the approach wrongly presumed that countries’ security interests were confined to their immediate geographical neighbourhoods.“This assumes that the security concerns of States politely stop at their regional borders. They do not,” he said.He further stressed that national security considerations often extend beyond narrowly defined regional boundaries, adding that the idea of maintaining a military balance within a particular region or subregion was unrealistic.The resolution argues that conventional arms control should primarily be pursued at regional and subregional levels, as most threats to international peace and security in the post-Cold War period have emerged among countries within the same geographical regions.
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It also calls for promoting agreements that strengthen regional peace and security while maintaining armaments and military forces at the lowest possible levels.Separately, India voted against a paragraph referring to conventional arms control proposals concerning South Asia.The paragraph took note of initiatives undertaken in various regions, including consultations among certain latin American countries and proposals for conventional arms control in South Asia, while acknowledging the importance of such measures for regional security.The resolution further states that militarily significant countries and nations possessing greater military capabilities have a special responsibility to advance agreements aimed at strengthening regional peace and security.