BASIC's Project on
Getting to Zero
Working Towards a Nuclear Weapon-Free World
Latest News
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
Conference 2010 ends with adoption of consensus Final Document
- Final
Document (PDF) - adopted 28 May 2010 (online via
Reaching Critical Will).
Britain
reveals nuclear warhead levels
AFP via Yahoo! News, 26 May 2010
New
START treaty headed to Senate Thursday: White House
AFP via Yahoo! News, 13 May 2010.
New UK Government Coalition Agreement
refers to Trident and the NPT. Excerpt from Section 2,
page 2, of the document (PDF) Conservative
Liberal Democrat coalition negotiations Agreements reached,
11 May 2010:
The parties commit to holding a full Strategic Security
and Defence Review alongside the Spending Review with strong
involvement of the Treasury.
The Government will be committed to the maintenance
of Britain's nuclear deterrent, and have agreed that the
renewal of Trident should be scrutinised to ensure value
for money. Liberal Democrats will continue to make the case
for alternatives. We will immediately play a strong role
in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference,
and press for continued progress on multilateral disarmament.
Anne
Penketh: To bring Tehran and Tel Aviv on board would be giant
step, BASIC Program Director, opinion in The Independent,
3 May 2010.
NATO
to debate future of nuclear arms in Europe, David
Brunnstrom, Reuters via the Washington Post, 21 April
2010.
Forty
European statesmen and women release statement on nuclear
disarmament to coincide with the Washington Summit,
Letter posted on website of the Royal United Services Institute
(RUSI), London, 13 April 2010.
Ian
Kearns: The future of nuclear security hangs on this week's
summit, opinion by BASIC Research Director,
in The Independent, 12 April 2010.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
US President Barack Obama sign
the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in
Prague, 8 April 2010. (For main text
of the Treaty, associated Protocol,
and Annexes and Unilateral Statements, visit this
page on the website of the US Department of State.)
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director,
quoted in: Obama
cuts US nuclear arsenal - but keeps sights trained on Iran,
The Independent, David Usborne, 7 April 2010.
Obama's
nuclear posture is a step in the right direction, but not
disarmament, Paul Ingram, Comment in The Guardian,
6 April 2010.
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director:
Edging
towards a nuclear-free world, 5 April 2010.
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director,
quoted in: Russia
claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement
with US; Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev poised to
sign new Start treaty 'next month', Luke Harding, Julian Borger,
and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, 24 March 2010.
Paul
Ingram, BASIC's Executive Director, spoke on a panel entitled
"Stop the Spread," with the UK Minister
of State, Ivan Lewis, and Lord Hannay, 16 March 2010.
Speech
by David Lidington MP, Shadow Minister for foreign affairs,
at the Nuclear Policy Lab at the Royal Society, "Conservative
policy on nuclear proliferation and deterrence," 16 March
2010.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
announces that nuclear arms control is firmly on the Alliance's
agenda: "Again, without anticipating the outcome of our
discussions I've already today indicated what I would call
a pragmatic and realistic approach while keeping the vision
clear, the vision of nuclear zero which I think all people
could and should embrace." See text
of full press conference, Brussels, 3 March 2010.
Foreign Ministers from Belgium, Germany,
Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Norway send letter
to NATO Secretary General, calling for alliance to seize non-proliferation
and disarmament opportunity, 26 February 2010.
German
Foreign Minister Pushes for NATO Nuclear Drawdown
Ralf Neukirch, Spiegel Online, 25 February 2010
U.S.
to retire nuclear Tomahawk missiles
Kyodo News, via The Japan Times, 23 February 2010
Five
Nato states to urge removal of US nuclear arms in Europe
Julian Borger, The Guardian, 22 February 2010
Allied
bid for Obama to remove US European nuclear stockpile
AFP, 20 February 2010
Belgian statesmen call for removal of
tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, in support of broader
agenda for nuclear weapons-free world
- Vers
un monde sans armes nucleaires
De Standaard, 19 February 2010
Authors of the op-ed include: Willy Claes, former
minister of Foreign Affairs, former NATO secretary general;
Jean-Luc Dehaene, former prime minister of Belgium,
member of the European Parliament; Louis Michel,
former minister of Foreign Affairs, former member of EU
Commission, member of the European Parliament; and, Guy
Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, chairman
liberal fraction European Parliament.
- The Belgian Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, followed
the op-ed with a press release, affirming that his government
supports the overall nuclear weapons-free vision. He also
noted that Belgium will work with a number of other NATO
countries to take the nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation
agenda forward during the review of the Alliance's Strategic
Concept.
Communique
de presse : un monde sans armes nucleaires est egalement
l'objectif du gouvernement Leterme
Belgian Prime Minister's website, 19 February 2010
Debates over Tactical Nuclear Weapons
Original article
- Germany
Opens Pandora's Box
Franklin Miller, former senior career policy official in
the Pentagon and the White House, former NATO Secretary
General and UK Defence Secretary Lord George Robertson,
and Kori Schake, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution,
Centre for European Reform Briefing Note, 8 February
2010.
Responses
US
and Russia back nuclear disarmament push
Gordon Corera, BBC News, 2 February 2010. Presidents Medvedev
and Obama offer support at beginning of Global Zero summit
in Paris.
- See statements
by US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon on the opening day of the Global
Zero Summit, Paris, 2 February 2010.
Next,
the Tactical Nukes
Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, and Radek Sikorski,
Foreign Minister of Poland, op-ed in The New York Times,
1 February 2010.
In his State
of the Union Address, President Barack Obama reaffirmed
his agenda on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, 27
January 2010. Key excerpts:
"Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting
perhaps the greatest danger to the American people -- the
threat of nuclear weapons. I have embraced the vision of
John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that
reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world
without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while
ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are
completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control
treaty in nearly two decades. And at April's Nuclear Security
Summit, we will bring 44 nations together behind a clear
goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the
world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands
of terrorists."
"These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our
hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating
international agreements in pursuit of these weapons. That
is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger
sanctions -- sanctions that are being vigorously enforced.
That is why the international community is more united,
and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as
Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there
should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences.
That is a promise."
For more news, see BASIC's Getting
to Zero Update. The monthly GTZ Update follows developments
that are relevant to nuclear nonproliferation and the reduction
of existing nuclear stockpiles, as well as reporting on proposals
and political initiatives associated with this agenda. To
subscribe to GTZ Updates, click
here.
More on
Getting to Zero
BASIC's work is made possible by the generous
support of our donors: the Ploughshares
Fund, the Ford Foundation,
the Joseph Rowntree Charitable
Trust, Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation,
Marmot Trust, Allan and Nesta Ferguson Foundation, Network
for Social Change, the Nuclear
Education Trust, Rockefeller Family & Associates,
and individual contributors to BASIC. We are grateful to all
of them for their support.
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