PRESS
BRIEFING
The NPT Review:
Testing the World's Bulwark Against Nuclear Anarchy
Thursday 3 April,
1pm
UN Correspondents' Association Lounge
Featuring:
Dan Plesch, Director, British American Security
Information Council (BASIC)
The two week
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) PrepCom, starting
Monday 7 April, will be a key test of the nuclear
disarmament and non-proliferation deals made in 1995 when
the NPT was made permanent.
Next week's meeting is
tasked with reviewing progress since 1995 and preparing
recommendations for future implementation of the 1995
Agreement on Principles and Objectives for nuclear
Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, including:
- a program of action
to implement Article VI of the NPT
- the determined
pursuit by the nuclear-weapon states of
systematic and progressive efforts to reduce
nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal
of eliminating those weapons.
Since 1995 progress has
included: completion of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
and the signing by the nuclear-weapon states of the
protocols to the South Pacific and African
nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties.
However, questions of
compliance remain over: US deployment of the new B61 (mod
11) nuclear bomb; nuclear cooperation by the
nuclear-weapon states; nuclear sharing arrangements
within NATO; participation of the United Kingdom, France
and China in disarmament negotiations; and continued
Russian doctrine based on the early use of nuclear
weapons.
Dan Plesch, Director of
BASIC said:
"The first
of the new NPT review meetings will test the Treaty's
effectiveness as the world's bulwark against nuclear
anarchy. Will the NPT be strengthened by full
implementation of the 1995 Agreements? Or will the
bulwark be eroded by failure to take these agreements
seriously?"
The indefinite extension
of the NPT in 1995, was agreed as a part of a package of
measures including the Principles and Objectives document and Strenthening
the Review Process. The future credibility of the Treaty
depends on the full implementation of both these
agreements. The PrepCom is the first meeting of the new
review process and is first of a series of annual
meetings leading up to a full Review Conference in 2000.
BASIC's recommendations
for the PrepCom appear in 1997 NPT PrepCom: Principles and
Objectives on the Agenda, BASIC Paper #19, 6 February 1997,
by Nicola Butler, Daniel Plesch, and Stephen Young.
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