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Countries participating in the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference on Friday proposed convening an international meeting in four years to establish a time line for ridding the world of nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 14; Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Google News, May 15).
(May. 17) -
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference earlier this month. Participants in the meeting submitted a draft agreement Friday calling for global nuclear disarmament talks in 2014 (U.N. photo).
The preliminary agreement outlines 26 steps for pursuing the abolition of nuclear weapons and avoiding conflict once global nuclear disarmament is achieved, Agence France-Presse reported. The plan, formulated by Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United Nations Boniface Chidyausiku, calls for an initial meeting next year aimed at expediting the disarmament process (Agence France-Presse/Google News, May 15).
The document also seeks pledges from nuclear-armed nations to halt further modernization of their nuclear arsenals; enter the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into force; ban further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; declare existing nuclear-weapon fuel; and establish a process for removing fissile material from all nuclear weapons under U.N. supervision (Diane Barnes, Global Security Newswire, May 17).
Participants in the monthlong NPT review meeting were unlikely to adopt the disarmament-schedule proposal in a final agreement, though, because it would not encompass known and assumed nuclear-weapon holders outside the treaty, and because the five nuclear powers recognized under the pact -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- have not backed such an arrangement in the past, according to AP.
A potentially less controversial measure in the draft agreement "reaffirms the unequivocal undertaking of the nuclear-weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals." The Bush administration rejected such language at the previous treaty review meeting in 2005, but the Obama administration has appeared more amenable to the goal enshrined in the treaty text.
The draft was prepared over one week by a conference committee responsible for initiatives related to eliminating and curbing the spread of nuclear weapons. A second committee submitted a proposal on nuclear weapon-free zones and monitoring of nuclear activities, while a third panel presented a draft document on civilian nuclear programs.
The proposals are expected to undergo alterations in panel deliberations this week before moving to a unified draft body later this month (Hanley, AP).
Meanwhile, conference delegates were weighing whether to assemble a list of potential mechanisms aimed at preventing NPT states from ending their participation in the pact, Kyodo News reported Friday. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 and has since conducted two nuclear tests.
A state withdrawal "could shake the foundation" of the treaty, said Japanese Ambassador Takeshi Nakane, chairman of the conference committee on civilian nuclear programs.
"The possibility of Iran seceding from the NPT is not zero," the official said.
Washington and allied governments have sought punitive measures against countries that leave the treaty, while some non-Western nations have argued that individual countries should have the right to decide whether to continue participating in the pact (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, May 14).