REVIEW CONFERENCE ON NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY HEARS INTRODUCTION OF WORKING PAPERS

i-Newswire.com - Press Release And News Distribution - REVIEW CONFERENCE ON NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY HEARS INTRODUCTION OF WORKING PAPERS: "The Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), today halfway through its calendar and with substantive negotiations yet to start in its three Main Committees, heard the introduction of 14 working papers.

i-Newswire, 2005-05-18 - States parties presented working papers on the following topics, among others: further measures to strengthen the NPT; the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty ( CTBT ); procedural arrangements for a successful Conference outcome; substantive issues for consideration by Main Committees I, II, and III; achieving permanent accountability; nuclear disarmament and reduction of the danger of nuclear war; non-proliferation of nuclear weapons; establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones; and withdrawal from the NPT.



Canada’s representative, introducing a working paper on the test-ban Treaty, said failure to bring the CTBT into force had given countries like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a “blank cheque” for indigenous nuclear weapon development. The test-ban Treaty, with its robust verification capacity, was an effective bar to both horizontal and vertical nuclear proliferation. If nuclear-weapon States still harboured desires to keep the nuclear testing door open, let them beware that others might exploit that opening.

On achieving permanent accountability, he said that the Conference should adopt outcomes designed to meet the full implementation of the NPT by modifying the way it did business and fostering improved transparency and accountability. States parties should meet annually to consider and decide on any Treaty-based issues. They should also report, on an annual basis, on implementation of article VI, on nuclear disarmament, and on paragraph 4 ( c ) of the 1999 Decision on Principles and Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

Paragraph 4 c from 1995 concerns 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, and by all States of general and complete disarmament under strict and effective global control."