Kazakhstan's president yesterday expressed doubts about the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's ability to dissuade countries from developing nuclear arsenals, Interfax reported (see GSN, May 19).
"The international law works very badly," Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a joint press conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres, "and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty does not work, because the international community cannot influence this."
Kazakhstan was the site of 500 nuclear-weapon tests from 1949 to 1989, while it was a Soviet republic, according to Interfax. After the dissolution of the Cold War superpower, the nation relinquished all nuclear weapons left on its territory.
"We gave the world an example, just one so far, when a president closes a test site and a state voluntarily refuses from nuclear weapons," Nazarbayev said.
"Regretfully, this example has not been so far interesting to other states," he added.
Despite his pessimism, Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan is committed to staunching proliferation within its own borders. "No nuclear materials will get to anyone from our territory," he said. "Kazakhstan guarantees that it will not provide its nuclear materials to other countries"
In May, delegates from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's 189 signatory nations agreed on an agenda for an upcoming treaty review conference for the first time in a decade (see GSN, May 18). U.S. President Barack Obama has suggested that a strengthened version of the treaty could push the world toward universal nuclear disarmament (Interfax, July 1).