Members

The Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) has over one hundred members from eighteen countries across Asia and the Pacific, consisting of former political, diplomatic and military leaders, senior government officials, and scholars and opinion leaders. APLN aims to inform and energize public opinion, especially high-level policymakers, to take seriously the very real threats posed by nuclear weapons, and to do everything possible to achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished and eventually eliminated.

Riaz Mohammad KHAN

Riaz Mohammad KHAN

Former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan

Riaz Mohammad Khan is a retired diplomat who served for forty years in the Pakistan Foreign Service. He was Ambassador to China and the EU. He has been a member of the NTI Board of Directors since 2014.

Riaz Mohammad Khan worked as the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan from February 2005 to April 2008. He was also Pakistan’s ambassador to China (2002-05), to European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg (1995-98) and to Kazakhstan and Kyrghyztan (1992-95). He was also the additional Foreign Secretary responsible for international organizations and arms control and disarmament issues from 1998-2002, Foreign Office Spokesman 2000-01 and Director General responsible for Afghanistan and Soviet affairs from 1986-92. Mr. Khan was posted at Pakistan Mission to the United Nations (1979-86), and joined the Pakistan Foreign Service on 1969. He lectured at the Punjab University from 1965 to 1969. His education includes Masters in Mathematics.

He performed as Leader of Pakistan’s delegation to the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, and Head of the Pakistan’s side for the Pakistan-India Composite Dialogue from 2005-2008, and the Pakistan-US Strategic Dialogue from 2006-2008 in the capacity as foreign secretary. Other achievements among his roles include member of Pakistan delegation to Pakistan-Afghanistan Proximity Talks in Geneva from 1982-88 and special envoy for back channel diplomacy with India from 2009-13. He also negotiated a number of important bilateral and multilateral agreements on behalf of Pakistan, including Third Generation Agreement with EU, and participated in a large number of summit level bilateral and multilateral conferences as well as academic and inter-governmental seminars and conferences. Finally, Mr. Khan has been a member of the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) Board of Directors since 2014.

Mr. Khan's published books include “Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism and Resistance to Modernity” published by John Hopkins and Woodrow Wilson Press (2011) and by Oxford University Press, Karachi and New Delhi; updated URDU version published in 2013 by Alqa Publishers, Lahore; “Untying the Afghan Knot: negotiating Soviet withdrawal” an Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University book, published by Duke University Press in 1991, coauthored “Yellow Sand Hills: a study of Chinese Communes” published in Dhaka in 1975. He also compiled a coffee table book on Pakistan published in 2012 as Pakistan: Glimpses of Vistas, History and Culture with narrative and over three hundred selected photographs. Mr. Khan has also contributed to research journals, and local and international press.