PRESS RELEASE

13 August 1996

Australian Government Report on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

On Wednesday 14 August, the report of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, a panel of international experts established by the Australian Government, will be made public. The Report views the elimination of nuclear weapons as both essential and practical. It will be available on the Internet at:

http://www.dfat.gov.au/dfat/cc/cchome.html.

The Canberra Commission Report comes at a time when the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), one of the key foreign policy goals of the Clinton Administration, looks likely to be blocked in the United Nations Conference on Disarmament by India.

Dan Plesch, Director of BASIC said:

"The Canberra Commission has done the world a service by proving that the elimination of nuclear weapons is an essential and practical national security objective."

Key questions for the US Administration are now:

1. Does the State Department have any similar study of its own of the practicalities of achieving the Administration's stated ultimate goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons?
   
   
2. Would the Department consider the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on nuclear disarmament at UN Conference on Disarmament?
   
   
3. What measures does the Department envisage taking in order to win support for the Test Ban Treaty given the position of India and other non-aligned states?

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