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NATO
NATO Summit Set to Ignore
1995 NPT Decisions
6 April 1999
By Martin Butcher
NATO's key aim in approving a new Strategic
Concept at the forthcoming Summit is to bring itself up to
date, taking account of the changes that have occurred since
1991, when the last Concept was agreed.
However, according to a well placed official
in Washington DC, there has not even been any consideration
at NATO, or in the State Department, of revising the nuclear
paragraphs of the Concept to take account of the indefinite
extension of the NPT, and the other decisions taken at the
1995 NPT Review and Renewal Conference. Neither the fact of
indefinite extension, nor language from the Principles and
Objectives will be included in the Concept, the official confirmed.
NATO is unwilling to alter its nuclear strategy
to allow for the changed environment following the 1995 conference.
Furthermore, NATO nations who campaigned vociferously for
the 1995 decisions, will not make any reference to the need
to update the Principles and Objectives document at the Year
2000 Review Conference.
NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels on April
12 to discuss Kosova. They will doubtless be asked by officials
to rubbber stamp as much of the documentation for Washington
as possible. This may include the nuclear paragraphs and proliferation
document.
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