Quetta, Pakistan – 26 November 2025 – The Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN) successfully convened a high-level international conference titled “Challenges to the Conference on Disarmament: International Biases, Competing Strategies, Disruptive Technologies.”

Held at BUITEMS, Quetta, the event brought together prominent national and international scholars, security analysts, and policymakers to examine the mounting obstacles to global disarmament efforts, the erosion of arms-control regimes, and the destabilising impact of emerging technologies on strategic stability, with particular focus on South Asia.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Zafar Khan, Executive Director of BTTN, highlighted the urgent need for renewed multilateral dialogue amid great-power competition, the weakening of existing treaties, and the rapid integration of disruptive technologies into military systems. He stressed that the Conference on Disarmament (CD) remains deadlocked while nuclear and conventional asymmetries continue to intensify security dilemmas worldwide and in the region.

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Dr. Andrew Futter, Professor of International Politics at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, who analysed the global implications of technological disruption on arms control and strategic stability.

The Chief Guest, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Syed Shahab Shahid, HI(M), Director General Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs (ACDA), Strategic Plans Division, provided concluding remarks, emphasising the need for pragmatic, inclusive approaches to revive the Conference on Disarmament and safeguard regional and global peace.

The conference concluded with the presentation of souvenirs, a group photograph.