PRESS RELEASE

24 April 2000

Vice-President’s Commitment to Nuclear Disarmament Challenged

Critics Contend US Has No Game Plan for Nuclear Weapons Meeting 

WASHINGTON, DC – When 187 nations begin over three weeks of negotiations at the United Nations on global nuclear proliferation for the first time in five years, Vice-President Al Gore won’t be there.  However, he will be in New York just a few blocks away to attend a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser with President Bill Clinton.  Having failed to get the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) last October, the U.S. Administration is now ignoring a weakened Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime.  

In 1995 Vice-President Gore attended the NPT Review meeting which indefinitely extended the Treaty. Many states followed the US lead by sending high-level representatives to reaffirm their commitment to the reduction of nuclear arms, but since then there has been precious little progress in attaining this goal.    Following the 1999 defeat of the CTBT in the US Senate, Vice-President Gore took to the airwaves in his first campaign commercial stating; “There is no issue more important than nuclear weapons.” 

“With nuclear issues at the top of their stated security agendas, why are world leaders such as President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore staying away from the NPT Review Conference on controlling and eliminating nuclear weapons?” says Dan Plesch, Director of BASIC.  “Al Gore has said he wants to phase out the internal combustion engine over the next 25 years, but on eliminating nuclear weapons he has no long-term vision.  Mr. Gore should take this opportunity to share his plan to eliminate nuclear weapons and reassure the world of the US commitment to disarmament.  Anything short of this would be a commitment to maintaining a nuclear arsenal permanently.  The NPT is designed to prevent nuclear powers from holding on to nuclear weapons forever.” 

“I don’t think the US has a game plan that reflects the post Cold War era,” says Plesch. “Washington is reacting to the nuclear threat by developing National Missile Defense (NMD) and is seeking to weaken arms control treaties like the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM). The vast majority of countries want to eliminate nuclear weapons and they want the US to help, but in Washington no one is answering the phone.”   

The New Agenda Coalition, a group of seven states including South Africa, Brazil, Egypt, Sweden, Mexico, Ireland, and New Zealand, is expected to lead those countries and challenge the U.S. on numerous issues during the NPT meetings. These range from U.S. plans to renegotiate the ABM Treaty to open the door for NMD, to the Pentagon’s continued reliance on nuclear weapons to deter terrorism. These countries have become impatient with the US position reiterated by State Department Spokesman Jamie Rubin last Friday that  ‘Disarmament doesn’t happen overnight.’ 

Secretary Madeline Albright is schedule to address the NPT today, but US delegation head Norman Wulf will do the real work at the conference.   Mr. Wulf, a political appointee, is considered by arms control experts to be a minor figure in the Clinton Administration. 

Back to Nuclear and WMD