Excerpts from Opening Statements to the NPT 2002 PrepCom

Post on 5 May 2002 by Dave Steiger tagged:

Jody Daniel
Maya Nakamura

Excepts by Subject

 

Compliance
United Kingdom “The Iraqi regime’s refusal to meet its UN disarmament and monitoring obligations has led to real and justified concerns that, in the absence of international inspections, the Iraqi leadership is attempting to re-establish its WMD program.”
United States of America “Nations seeking nuclear weapons who also harbor terrorists represent a particularly severe threat to the civilized world. Violations of the NPT by Iraq and North Korea during the 1990s and their continued non-compliance with the Treaty underscore the dangers to the global community that arise from such actions.”
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Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)
Egypt on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition “We underline the importance and urgency of signatures and ratifications to achieve the early entry into force of the CTBT without delay and without condition.”
Japan “The CTBT will not only contribute to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons but also to constraining qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons. The CTBT, like the IAEA safeguards, is one of the major pillars of the NPT regime and a realistic and concrete measure that contributes to the achievement of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”
Islamic Republic of Iran “By devising such a policy, the US would require to test the new nuclear weapon systems which would be in clear violation of its legal obligations stemming from its signatures of the CTBT and its unilateral moratorium to conduct further nuclear tests.”
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Disarmament & The Thirteen Steps
Belarus “We call upon the two nuclear-weapon states possessing the largest nuclear weapons stockpiles to sign, at the earliest, a legally binding agreement on further irreversible reduction of strategic nuclear weapons and means of their delivery.”
Mexico “We consider the non-observance of past commitments, within the review process of the NPT, an additional form of non-compliance.”
United States of America “The United States generally agrees with the conclusions of the 2000 NPT Review Conference and will contribute to their implementation.”
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Education
Mexico “I would also like to make reference to the importance that the government of Mexico gives to educational activities on disarmament and non-proliferation. We hope that the report which will be presented by the Group of Experts in this field at the 57th session of the General Assembly, includes recommendations that allows the governments and all sectors of society, to raise the level of awareness around the world on nuclear dangers, and ultimately, on the importance of strengthening disarmament and non-proliferation.”
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Environment
Kyrgyz Republic The Kyrgyz Republic noted the need to address the issue of “mitigating the consequences of past and present nuclear weapons programs“. They also reiterated their call for assistance from governments and organizations with expertise in the field of cleanup and disposal of radioactive contaminants.
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Export Controls
United States of America “We must be vigilant for other NPT parties whose membership in the Treaty belies their real intentions. One way to uncover real intentions is to monitor procurement practice, including whether acquisition of a particular item has any reasonable peaceful purpose for the country in question. Suppliers should spare no effort when it comes to protecting against the procurement efforts of a nation seeking nuclear weapons. Sometimes, the only recourse is to deny all nuclear cooperation with such countries, particularly if they harbor terrorists. Such rigorous export control policies combined with a robust IAEA safeguards system facilitate peaceful nuclear cooperation among responsible NPT parties by minimizing the risk that nuclear commerce will contribute to proliferation.”
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Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT)
United Kingdom “It (FMCT) should not be held hostage to other issues. Those who wish to promote those other issues must rely on the merits of their case, not on linkages.”
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Maritime Transport of Radioactive Materials
Jamaica “Marine pollution and its transboundary implications have disastrous effects on the fragile ecology of small island developing states such as Jamaica. Jamaica is extremely concerned with the safety and environmental risks to which we are exposed by the maritime transport of nuclear waste and other radioactive material through Caribbean waters. We therefore reiterate the need for the strengthening of measures and international regulations to protect states from these risks. While we can appreciate the steps taken by states to prevent the likelihood of accidents, it can only be emphasized that if a disaster were to occur, the result would cause untold damage to our environment with consequent implications for our already fragile economies. Jamaica recognizes the need for safety and security relating to these shipments and the right of states under Article IV of the NPT to benefit from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We believe however that these considerations should not be inimical to the sustainable development of other states.”
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Nuclear Terrorism/Nuclear Safety
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “The development and adoption of international legally binding norms under the auspices of the Agency have significantly contributed to the enhancement of nuclear safety worldwide. To date, conventions have been developed covering the safety of power reactors, radioactive waste and spent fuel management, early notification and assistance in case of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency, and the physical protection of nuclear material. Many States are not yet party to these conventions, certain key areas of nuclear activity are still not subject to conventions, and some of the conventions that exist are not comprehensive in their coverage. Further efforts are needed to make these conventions universal and comprehensive and to establish legally binding norms in areas not currently covered by conventions. An effective worldwide safety regime can best be established through the application of one global system rather than a set of disparate regional systems.”
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Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs)
Russian Federation “The international community has accumulated a great experience in matters of the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones. It testifies to the fact that when the process of institutionalizing the zones follows the channel of principles and parameters, which have become a common practice, when it does not contradict the international law norms, then the NWFZs receive recognition and respective assurances. And vice versa, non-observance of these conditions makes the process of recognition of a zone more difficult, the way it happened to the NWFZ in South-East Asia.”
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Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology
Columbia “For a country like Columbia that doesn’t have neither has never had aspirations in the field of nuclear weapons, the participation in a Treaty as the NPT, besides the contribution that can represent for the international peace and security, has a very concrete objective, the cooperation for peaceful uses. That was one of the main motivations in 1968 and it has also been since then one of the biggest frustrations. In this review exercise that we will carry out in the next days, it is necessary to recognize that the promised cooperation for peaceful uses of the nuclear energy has had a very faulty development and that we must take concrete measures to correct this situation. In this respect, Columbia insists in the proposal to consider the possibility to convene an Extraordinary Conference of the Parties, dedicated exclusively to the development of the cooperation for peaceful uses of the nuclear energy.”
China “China believes that the NPT’s two functions of non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be balanced and that state parties’ rights to peaceful uses of nuclear energy should not be restricted in the name of preventing nuclear weapons proliferation. This is an important condition for the NPT to keep its vitality and for non-nuclear Weapon States to strictly abide by their non-nuclear weapon commitment.”
Bangladesh “Despite the passage of three full decades since the coming into force of the NPT, the hope of developing state parties to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes remains an unfulfilled dream.”
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Regional Issues
Egypt “It is incumbent upon the States party to the Treaty, particularly the nuclear-weapon States, to take all the steps necessary to urge Israel to adhere to the Treaty and to place all its nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards. This is all the more urgent since all states of the Middle east have acceded to the treaty, with the exception of Israel, which continues to place obstacles before the efforts made to render the region free from nuclear weapons.”
Norway “We agree that the situation in the Middle East must be addressed from a universalization as well as a compliance perspective. We must, however, ensure that other regional challenges, in particular South Asia, also become the subject of our concern and attention.”
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Safeguards and Additional Protocols
Australia “Universalisation of the Additional Protocol on strengthened safeguards is a key nonproliferation priority and should be supported strongly by the PrepCom. We were heartened by the 2000 NPT Review Conference’s reaffirmation of the fullscope safeguards supply condition. At the same time, non-proliferation cannot remain static. Our view is that the “Agency’s safeguards system” which non-nuclear weapon state NPT Parties are obliged to accept should come quickly to be regarded as comprising both classical safeguards (lNFCIRC/153) and the Additional Protocol (INFCIRC/540).”
Egypt “We maintain that additional measures can not be accorded a higher priority at the expense of the main objective namely, the achievement of the universality of the comprehensive safeguards of the Agency. In principle we support such additional measures as the additional protocol to the Safeguards Agreement and the integrated safeguards regime. However, we believe they will be lacking in effectiveness and credibility unless the universality of the comprehensive safeguards is achieved.”
Non-Aligned Movement “We stress the importance of the IAEA’s Safeguards system, including comprehensive safeguards agreements and also the Model additional Protocols. However, we do not desire to see international efforts towards achieving universality of comprehensive safeguards wither in favour of pursuing additional measures and restrictions on non-nuclear-weapon States, which are already committed to non-proliferation norms, and which have renounced the nuclear-weapons option.”
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Universality
United Kingdom “The NPT is thus tantalisingly close to universality. Nevertheless, real difficulties in completing the last steps have become apparent. There are four countries that have not yet joined the NPT. We call on two of them, India and Pakistan, to work together to reduce nuclear tensions in the region by entering into bilateral dialogue on confidence building measures as soon as possible, in the belief that this is a vital pre-requisite to their fulfilling the requirements of UN Security Council resolution 1172, including accession to the NPT as non-nuclear weapon states. We call upon a third, Israel, to resolve international concerns about its nuclear status by acceding to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. And we hope that the fourth, Cuba, will reconsider its position on adherence to the treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state.”
Mexico “The negative or reticence of Nuclear Weapon States to be held accountable on the degree of compliance of their commitments and obligations as Parties to the NPT, increases the certainty that some States pretend to possess their nuclear arsenals indefinitely, weakens the international regime of non-proliferation and subtracts feasibility to the universality of the Treaty.”
Egypt “In principle we support such additional measures as the additional protocol to the Safeguards Agreement and the integrated safeguards regime. However, we believe they will be lacking in effectiveness and credibility unless strenuous efforts are made to deal with the grave imbalance created by the continued refusal of a few states to abide by the principles which have become an integral part of the international non-proliferation regime.”
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US Nuclear Posture Review
Belarus “The Review undermines the basic provisions of the NPT and envisages the development of new types of nuclear weapons, which may lead to the resumption of nuclear testing. Lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and expanding the circumstances and conditions for their use create a dangerous precedent.”
Islamic Republic of Iran “The new nuclear posture review submitted by the US Defense Department to the Congress is the most real setback within the nuclear non-proliferation context requiring our careful consideration. This doctrine furthermore is a clear violation of the United States multilateral obligations under the NPT and contradicts previous assurances officially undertaken by the United States at the highest level.”
Japan “The threshold for the use of nuclear weapons should be kept as high as possible.”
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