ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday called for an early end to the Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy, while warning that disinformation and emerging technologies were increasingly shaping modern conflicts.

Speaking at an Arria-formula meeting of the United Nations Security Council organized by Russia on the information dimension of the Ukraine crisis, Pakistani Counsellor Kamran Taj said continued hostilities were having a disproportionate impact on civilians, according to the statement.

He reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding position that the conflict should be resolved through peaceful means, calling for a “just and lasting settlement” consistent with the UN Charter and international law and acceptable to all parties involved, said the statement.

Taj said the growing role of information in global affairs had become increasingly complex, warning that disinformation campaigns were being used to manipulate public opinion and mislead policymakers, undermining trust and deepening polarization worldwide, as per the statement.

He cautioned that the weaponization of narratives, where facts and fabricated content are blurred, posed risks to international discourse and stability.

"The disingenuous use of information—blurring the lines between fact and fabrication—continues to erode trust and deepen polarization across the globe," it added.

Pakistan, he said, had itself been targeted by coordinated disinformation campaigns in the past, citing investigative findings by the EU DisinfoLab in 2020, the statement added.

He warned that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and deepfake tools were amplifying the spread of false information by enabling the creation of highly realistic but fabricated content.

Such developments, he said, risk inflaming tensions, misleading the public, and destabilizing regions, urging the international community to develop collective mechanisms to detect and counter technologically enhanced disinformation, it added.

Arria-formula meetings are informal sessions of the Security Council that allow member states to discuss specific issues outside the Council’s formal decision-making framework.

Emerging technologies

Pakistan urges diplomacy, warns of disinformation risks at UN meeting on Ukraine