ANALYSIS: Nuclear conference adopts 'best' document on disarmament

By JT Nguyen May 29, 2010, 0:25 GMT

New York - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference adopted Friday a declaration considered its best so far in pursuing the United Nations goal of nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.

The 28-page document adopted by consensus by the 189 NTP parties called on the world's nuclear powers to embark unequivocally on the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

   The five recognized nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - have all agreed to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But they have rejected all attempts to a time-bound schedule and total destruction of the weapons. The document called for a timeline, but left it to those powers to heed it or not.

The five countries believe in nuclear deterrence while many non- nuclear-weapon states said that policy has led to a nuclear arms race in past decades.

Washington currently has slightly over 5,000 nuclear warheads and London about 200 out of a reported total of 23,000 nuclear warheads around the world.

   The month-long conference at UN headquarters in New York concluded Friday with a declaration from its chairman, Philippine Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, that 'The document before you is the best that can be offered.'

   The review conference held once every five years ended without a declaration in 2005. The sessions in 1995 and 2000 produced action plans that were never implemented.

In the meantime, India, Pakistan and North Korea exploded nuclear devices. Other countries like Iran have obtained advanced nuclear technology. Israel is alleged to have nuclear warheads.

Deadlocks in implementing the NPT started with a failure to eliminate nuclear weapons by the five powers sitting on the UN Security Council. NPT entered into force in 1970, aiming at nuclear disarmament and authorizing peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

   The NPT since 1970 has been in crisis because of failure to monitor countries that gained nuclear technology and turned to producing weapons instead of limiting themselves to nuclear energy for civilian uses.

   This year's review session took place after Washington and Moscow agreed to reduce their nuclear strategic weapons and to further the goals of eliminating nuclear weapons. The 2010 UN review conference was boosted by the renewed US-Russia cooperation in nuclear disarmament.

Washington and London also showed transparency at the talks start by revealing the once-national secrets of their nuclear arsenals.

   The Global Security Institute, a nuclear disarmament think tank, said the declaration, even watered down by the nuclear powers that are allergic to legal timelines, could be a step forward.

   Jonathan Granoff, GSI president, believed the declaration is a small but significant step that should be supported by the international community.

   'It indicates a forward-looking commitment to disarmament and thus warrants the support of the international community,' Granoff said.

   Granoff said the five nuclear powers, known also as P5 because they are the five permanent members on the 15-nation UN Security Council, had effectively removed from the declaration all references to the most important and significant disarmament commitments.

   'It is ironic that such levels of cooperation could be obtained among states, some of which threaten each other with thousands of nuclear weapons and civilization annihilation,' said Granoff. 'If only they could cooperate with such unity to get rid of the weapons.'

   As part of the declaration, Arab governments agreed for the first time since 1995 to hold an initial conference in 2012 to establish a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East. The three countries - the US, Russia and Britain - that supported the conference in 1995 are called to work with the UN secretary general to organize the conference.

   'All' Middle East nations are called to attend the conference, the document said, while calling on Israel to sign on to the NPT.

   India and Pakistan, which exploded nuclear devices, have also refused to join the NPT. North Korea, a signatory, exploded nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009 and refused to let International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts inspect its nuclear facilities, in violation of the NPT.

   For the first time, the NPT declaration called for North Korea to return 'at an early date' to talks and to carry out obligations under the six-party talks, which involve China, the US, Russia, Japan, North and South Korea. Those obligations include the 'complete and verifiable abandonment of all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes.'

   Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been rising after North Korea was alleged to have sunk in March a South Korea naval ship with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors.