PRESS RELEASE

3 April 1997

The NPT Review:
Testing the World's Bulwark Against Nuclear Anarchy

Thursday 3 April 1997, 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 Strengthening 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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