Statement by Mr David Andrews TD, Ireland's Foreign Minister,

on the the release of

"Towards A Nuclear Free World: The Need For A New Agenda"

9 June 1998

I indicated to the Dail and Seanad recently that I had been considering an initiative in respect of nuclear disarmament, and I have asked you here today to share with you the fruits of these efforts.

I have been working for some months with my colleagues from New Zealand, Sweden and South Africa on ways and means to re-kindle the will of the international community for nuclear disarmament. These efforts have now led to the formation of a new coalition of like-minded countries, including in particular those countries with which we have for many years worked together in the field of nuclear disarmament: Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and more recently Slovenia, a grouping which I shall henceforth describe as the New Agenda Coalition. [He then departed from his text to congratulate South Africa and President Mandela for being the only country in the world to have produced and then dismantled nuclear weapons.]

The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War provided opportunities for the final thrust leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. These opportunities have sadly been squandered in the decade since then by the international community.

The nuclear weapon states have found new justifications where none exist for the indefinite retention of their nuclear weapons.

States such as Ireland - eager to grasp the opportunity offered by the end of the Cold War - have proposed ambitious programmes for the achievement of a world without nuclear weapons. Given the complacency of the nuclear weapon states and their lack of urgency, the results have been meagre and disappointing.

It was in this pitiable and worrying environment that my colleagues and I decided that a new initiative had to be taken now if the prospect of the retention of nuclear weapons was not to continue for the indefinite future.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty process was launched by Frank Aiken in 1958, and Ireland has traditionally maintained a close involvement in nuclear disarmament. We therefore feel a particular concern at moments such as this, when the NPT is under threat.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty is the foundation on which the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons rests. But more particularly, it is a charter for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The nuclear weapon states are required to eliminate their nuclear arsenals under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Their failure to fulfil their legally binding obligations under the Treaty is not the result of any inadequacy in the Treaty itself. It is the result of the lack of political will.

Today's initiative is about securing that political will and putting in motion the actions that will necessarily follow, so that in a few short years we will have consigned nuclear weapons to history both to protect our future and that of our children in a nuclear weapons-free world.

The recent developments in India and Pakistan have not been the motive for the launching of this initiative. The work of my colleagues and myself predates them. However coincidental these developments may be, they can be seen now as justifying, indeed validating the necessity of this Declaration. The existence of three nuclear weapon-capable states - India, Pakistan and Israel - in regions of the world where some of the worst long term tension exists, are a demonstaration, if any were needed, of the high cost of inaction on the part of the international community.

The development of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and South Asia repeats all over again the folly which was used to justify their development by the five nuclear weapon states during the Cold War.

The nuclear weapon states have let slip the opportunities for the elimination of their own nuclear arsenals. We now face further proliferation. The only valid response to this situation or any situation involving the retention of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them for all time.

There is only one logical step for mankind now. That is to see to the abolition of these weapons once and for all. In the first instance we require a renewed commitment. The nuclear weapon states already entered into commitments as Parties to the NPT. But, however much they reduce their nuclear arsenals, they persist in developing, modernizing and deploying nuclear weapons. These actions circumvent the hard choice needed, if we are to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. We must now break through this obduracy and secure a firm political commitment on the part of the nuclear weapon states and nuclear weapons-capable states to proceed with the rapid elimination of nuclear weapons. Nothing less than a straight and unambiguous political commitment will do.

Once we have secured that commitment, we will look at nuclear disarmament in a totally new way. Let me explain. In the case of other weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons, genuine commitment was followed by serious negotiation premised on that commitment. Nuclear force reductions will take on a very different complexion if they are scrutinized from the perspective of a commitment to eliminate them totally.

At the same time, we can use existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms or invent new ones, as required, so that we can achieve rapid negotiating results. The Conference on Disarmament was created in 1961 as a centrepiece in the nuclear disarmament machinery. The refusal of the nuclear weapon states even to discuss the prospects of nuclear disarmament at the Conference on Disarmament, would of necessity have to change.

Our final goal must be to abolish nuclear weapons and to prohibit their development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use, just as we have done in the case of chemical and biological weapons. We have criminalized any activities associated with chemical weapons. We must now reach a stage where any activity relating to the development, production and use of nuclear weapons will likewise be prohibited.

Let me close by reiterating a statement of the obvious: nuclear weapons if they are retained will be used - whether by accident or design. While we have no doubt about human ingenuity we must equally have no doubt about its frailty. With the development and use of nuclear weapons humanity has gone one step too far. Nagasaki and Hiroshima are enduring and terrible witnesses to this. We must pull back from the brink; or the price may be humanity itself.

My colleagues the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden today in their respective capitals join with me in launching this Declaration entitled: "Towards A Nuclear Free World: The Need For A New Agenda." I am particularly pleased to greet here today among us the representatives of those countries accredited to Ireland and I know that some of them have gone to the trouble of travelling from London for the occasion.

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