Mr Chairman,
I have the honour of taking the floor on behalf of the delegations of the New Agenda initiative: Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. First of all, allow me to congratulate you on your appointment as Chairman of this year’s session of the First Committee of the General Assembly.
In May this year, the States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons adopted a consensus Final Document. Never before have the parties reached agreement on such a broad set of measures designed to achieve the purposes of the Treaty and the implementation of its provisions.
Such a result could not have been foreseen given the diverging approaches and perspectives in the years preceding the Review Conference. A body blow was dealt to the non-proliferation regime by the nuclear tests in South Asia in 1998. There appeared to be considerable doubt as to whether the Principles and Objectives agreed to in 1995 had been false gifts offered in exchange for the indefinite extension of the Treaty, and there were growing doubts as to whether all the States parties possessed the degree of commitment necessary to seriously advance nuclear disarmament.
Yet, at the very moment when the future of the Treaty and its non-proliferation regime appeared to be almost in jeopardy, the States parties demonstrated a singular and common purposefulness.They rallied to confirm the objectives and purposes of the Treaty, and unambiguously determined to underpin the global non-proliferation regime.
The positive outcome of the 2000 NPT Review Conference was made possible because the States parties definitively agreed to engage in nuclear disarmament as an achievable goal without further procrastination and prevarication. The five nuclear-weapon States, for their part, entered into a far-reaching political commitment. They have now made an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals. While the Conference reaffirmed that the ultimate objective of States in the disarmament process is general and complete disarmament, the commitment entered into in 2000 is to the singular pursuit of nuclear disarmament.
Thus, the nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT have finally agreed to proceed towards the achievement of a nuclear-weapons-free world. What had hitherto been implicit has thus become explicit, and with this act the Treaty is both reinforced and revitalized as the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. With this commitment and agreement on the measures required to achieve our common goal, the States parties are well placed to proceed with the achievement of our shared objective of a world free of nuclear weapons.
We would have preferred to see greater detail and in certain cases more specific mandates contained in the Final Document of the NPT Review Conference. Nevertheless, we consider that the measures agreed all constitute essential elements which must be pursued in parallel by the nuclear-weapon States themselves, and by both the nuclear and non-nuclear-weapon States working together. With such a clear road map, the states concerned in each case must steel themselves for the task of further elaborating each measure within the parameters of the mandates set and advancing the negotiation and implementation of each instrument or arrangement, be it at the bilateral, plurilateral or multilateral level.
Of course, many of the measures included in the outcome of the Review Conference were already well rehearsed. This outcome includes the existing bilateral process between the United States and the Russian Federation, but it also addresses sub-strategic systems. It encompasses the entry into force of the CTBT and the conclusion of a fissile material treaty, but it already anticipates the need to begin preparations for guaranteeing a world free of nuclear weapons - through the development of verification mechanisms. It opens a new chapter by addressing issues related to the role of nuclear weapons in the interim until they are eliminated, including questions of operational status, and it entrenches the principle of irreversibility in disarmament measures. It opens the door for greater transparency.
But, what is novel and unprecedented, is the recognition that all issues relating to the nuclear disarmament process, including questions of a diminishing role for nuclear weapons and reducing their operational status, are recognized as the concern of all States parties and have for the first time been jointly addressed by all the States parties, even if the implementation of steps to give effect to undertakings in this regard lies primarily with the States directly concerned.
There are a range of instruments which must be urgently concluded and brought into force if we are to achieve nuclear disarmament. All States must contribute to this process to which we have committed ourselves.
The deficit in respect of the bilateral arms reduction process must be addressed by the parties as a matter of priority. START II has not entered into force. We welcome the significant step taken by the Russian Federation in ratifying START II. This Treaty and its 1997 Protocols must now enter into force. The commencement of START III negotiations must lead the way in demonstrating the unequivocal commitments entered into earlier this year, while at the same time preserving the international stability which the integrity of the ABM Treaty promotes.
We welcome the steps already taken by some of the five nuclear-weapon States with lesser nuclear arsenals. Continuing restraint by these States and further unilateral steps by all nuclear weapon States will contribute to the early achievement of the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Multilaterally, measures already agreed to in 1995 have been pending for too long. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, concluded in 1996, has still not entered into force. Negotiations on a fissile material treaty remain stalemated, and the prospects for legally binding security assurances for States parties against the use of threat of use of nuclear weapons have become hostage to new doctrines.
The agreement at the NPT on introducing interim measures in the interval until nuclear weapons are eliminated, necessitates action by the nuclear weapon States and their allies. The international community will follow closely the implementation of these responsibilities by the concerned states.
As we meet here less than four months after NPT 2000, it is clearly too early to expect results from the commitments and undertakings so recently agreed. However, we can have no illusions that the success of the Review Conference has brought about a quickening in the pace of multilateral negotiations. The Conference on Disarmament continues to be locked in the stalemate of the previous three years. Hence, there were once again no fissile material treaty negotiations this year, nor is there yet much promise for negotiations next year. Entry into force of the CTBT remains as remote as before.
We cannot allow this stalemate to continue.
So where, Mr Chairman, does the global disarmament and non-proliferation regime stand today? The patient is not cured, but a diagnosis has been made and a remedy prescribed. What remains is to make sure that the patient takes the medicine, and that the patient reacts as expected.
The NPT still lacks universal adherence. The seven Ministers of the New Agenda - meeting here in New York last month - focused on this issue and called for the redoubling of efforts by the international community to achieve universal adherence to the Treaty. They repeated their earlier calls on those three states which are not parties to the NPT and which operate unsafeguarded nuclear facilities to accede to the Treaty as non-nuclear weapon States and to place their nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.
Our Ministers stressed the importance of full compliance by the parties with all the provisions of the NPT.
What was adopted at NPT 2000 is the property of all the States parties to the Treaty. Our seven delegations have come to this session of the First Committee with the intention of working together with the other delegations here present so that this will be underpinned by the United Nations in a resolution of this General Assembly.
The resolution which we will present to this committee will reflect the outcome of the recent Review Conference. It will be set in the context of the commitment made by the nuclear weapon States which we have duly welcomed. It will accept the compromises which all parties made to achieve a common purpose and common future agenda. It will anticipate the achievement of an instrument or set of instruments required to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. It will offer no illusory fixes, but it will promise a consistent scrutiny of progress achieved and of any opportunities squandered.
Our seven governments are determined to continue working together with all other countries to maintain vigilant oversight of the implementation of each of the agreed elements and to develop new approaches and new tasks where we consider these constructive and necessary to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
Thank you Mr Chairman