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Canada Urges NATO Nuclear Strategy Update
for Washington Summit
20 April 1999
In response to a report from its parliament, the Canadian
government has agreed that NATO, in its examination of the
Alliance's Strategic Concept, should include the nuclear component.
An extract is below.
Details
On 10 December 1998, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs
and International Trade (SCFAIT) submitted a report to the
Canadian House of Commons entitled Canada
and the Nuclear Challenge: Reducing the Political Value of
Nuclear Weapons for the 21st Century.
On 19 April 1999, the goverment produced a formal response.
In reply to one of the report's recommendations, the Canadian
government agreed that Canada should urge NATO to update the
nuclear paragraphs of the Alliance's Strategic Concept, scheduled
to be released at the 50th Anniversary Summit in Washington.
The following is an excerpt from the Canadian Government response:
UPDATING THE STRATEGIC CONCEPT
15. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada
argue forcefully within NATO that the present re-examination
and update as necessary of the Alliance Strategic Concept
should include its nuclear component.
Response
The Government agrees. Current NATO nuclear policy is set
out in the 1991 Strategic Concept. The Concept, drafted in
the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, was positive and
progressive for its time, but the profound transformation
of the security environment in the intervening years led to
a decision at the 1997 Madrid Summit to re-examine it. The
updated version is expected to be released at the Alliance's
50th Anniversary Summit in Washington, DC in April.
Canada argued that for the revision to be credible, it must
deal with an examination of the characteristics of NATO nuclear
forces. Developments with respect to various arms control
and disarmament arrangements have enhanced overall Alliance
security. Circumstances are much changed since 1991. For example,
the Alliance has reduced by more than eighty percent its sub-strategic
nuclear forces, eliminated all nuclear artillery and short-range
ground-launched missiles and reiterated that it has no intention,
no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory
of new Alliance members. As well, remaining Alliance nuclear
forces operate at significantly reduced levels of readiness.
In addition, the CFE Treaty has reduced the levels and relative
balance of conventional forces in Europe. NATO has sufficient
conventional forces to withstand any conventional challenge
by any imaginable single or combined adversary. Other developments,
including the establishment by NATO of cooperative security
bodies such as the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the
inauguration of a new partnership with Russia and other states,
as well as the new roles adopted by NATO and the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in conflict
prevention, crisis management and peace support operations,
have significantly improved NATO's ability to prevent conflict
and manage crises through political means.
As a result, NATO is better placed to defuse crises through
diplomatic or other means or, should it be necessary, to mount
a successful conventional defence. Consequently, the circumstances
in which any use of nuclear weapons might have to be contemplated
by the Alliance are now extremely remote and ever more difficult
to envisage.
Through arms control measures and by demonstrating their
NPT commitments to the implementation of nuclear disarmament,
NATO members should seek to enhance security and stability
further at the lowest level of forces consistent with defence.
The Alliance is an important forum and centre for coordinating
practical work on future non-proliferation, arms control and
disarmament. Canada will urge Allies to pursue consistently
this objective which is a vital aspect of their efforts to
provide for their security and defence.
Canada has proposed that the Alliance agree at the Washington
Summit that NATO review its nuclear policy and its relationship
to proliferation, arms control and disarmament developments.
This review and complementary activities by the Alliance would
send an important signal to would-be proliferators that both
nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are issues the Alliance
takes seriously. Taking into account that NATO works on the
basis of consensus, Canada will continue to urge NATO partners
to consider the impact on potential nuclear proliferators
when considering the characterization of the purpose of NATO
nuclear forces.
The full text of the response
Government Response to
the Recommendations of the Standing Committeed on Foreign
and International Trade on Canada's Nuclear Disarmament and
NTitreon-Proliferation Policy
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