UN agrees to begin talks on first arms trade treaty

Oct 30, 2009, 23:15 GMT

New York - The UN General Assembly's disarmament committee agreed on Friday to begin discussions aimed at establishing an arms trade treaty with the support of some the world's biggest arms traders.

The committee voted 153-1 to adopt a timetable whereby negotiations would begin for a 'strong and robust' treaty that would regulate global sale of weapons worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Zimbabwe was alone in opposition the resolution.

Countries that abstained were Bahrain, Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Yemen. China and Russia are among the world's big arms traders.

The United States, Britain, France and Germany, which are also major weapons traders, voted for the resolution.

The resolution called for accelerating the negotiations with several sessions to be held in 2012 with the hope that a draft treaty would be completed soon after.

It called for control systems of the arms trade that are of the 'highest possible standard' with the assistance of all states, particularly the arms manufacturers.

The negotiations should address the 'problems relating to the unregulated trade in conventional weapons and their diversion to the illicit market, considering that such risks can fuel instability, transnational organized crime and terrorism, and that international action should be taken to address the problem,' it said.

The decision by the disarmament committee culminated years to efforts by governments and non-government organizations, like Amnesty International, Oxfam International and a group devoted to fighting transfer of weapons known as IANSA.

The committee will send the adopted resolution to the 192-nation assembly for a final approval, which is expected, before the timetable for negotiations would begin.