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New York: India and Israel voted against a Pakistan–Belarus-sponsored draft resolution on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels at the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on November 2. The resolution secured 180 votes in favour, with India and Israel the only two countries voting against it and no abstentions.
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Explaining India’s position, Anmol Sher Bedi, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, said that conventional arms control is a global issue and should not be pursued primarily through regional and subregional frameworks. He argued that countries’ security concerns extend beyond geographical boundaries, making a narrowly defined regional defence balance unrealistic.
New Delhi also questioned the resolution’s request for the UN Disarmament Commission to formulate principles for regional conventional arms control agreements. Bedi pointed out that the commission has already adopted consensus outcomes on regional disarmament in 1993, conventional arms control and disarmament in 1999, and confidence-building measures involving conventional weapons in 2017.
The draft argued that conventional arms control should primarily be pursued through regional agreements because many security threats emerge between countries within the same region. It also called for arrangements aimed at strengthening regional peace while maintaining armaments and military forces at the lowest possible levels.
India separately voted against a paragraph referring to conventional arms control proposals in the context of South Asia. The vote reflected New Delhi’s longstanding position that arms-control frameworks must account for broader national security requirements rather than rely primarily on regional military-balance arrangements.
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