Arms body breaks 12 years of deadlock on nukes
The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament broke a dozen years of deadlock and opened the way to negotiate a new nuclear arms control treaty.
Diplomats in Geneva, Switzerland, welcomed the adoption of a “programme of work” as a breakthrough for the conference, which has been in a stalemate since it wrote the nuclear test ban treaty in 1996.
The programme refers to nuclear disarmament in general, but it indicates a top candidate for a new treaty is one to ban production of so-called “fissile materials” – highly enriched uranium and plutonium – needed to create atomic weapons.
Ambassador Idriss Jazairy of Algeria, who as chairman of the conference pushed for adoption of the programme, said the breakthrough came partly because of support by the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.
“Terrific result,” British ambassador John Duncan wrote on the Twitter micro-blogging site. He praised Mr Jazairy with “getting international work on nuclear disarmament restarted in Geneva”.
Even North Korea, which only this week tested its second nuclear bomb, endorsed the programme of work.
An Myong Hun, a diplomat with the North Korean delegation, told the conference: “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has decided to support the draft decision in order for the conference to be able to start its substantive work.”
This decision was taken even though the United Nations Security Council continued to criticise North Korea, Mr An said, adding that moves to acquire a nuclear arsenal were solely for self-defence.
He said it remained the country’s policy to achieve total nuclear disarmament, but nuclear weapons states had to lead the way.
Iran, which has been accused of trying to develop nuclear weapons, said it had sent the accord to Tehran but had yet to receive instructions.
Garold Larson, the head of the US delegation, joined in the praise for Mr Jazairy and other mediators and said delegates were looking forward to the work, “which will surely be challenging”.
The US has long backed proposals for a fissile materials treaty, but was credited with helping break the logjam by shifting its position to support a verifiable accord.
Russia and China also backed the programme, which also takes into account a concern of many non-nuclear nations that the negotiations should consider existing stockpiles of fissile materials.
The accord balances different interests of countries that have been deeply divided over the future path of arms negotiations since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was approved nearly 13 years ago.
The conference in earlier years negotiated a treaty on chemical weapons.
Many non-nuclear countries have long wanted the conference to negotiate nuclear disarmament, but the US led objections by arguing that it was unsuitable for negotiations among many countries.
It noted it already had been negotiating effectively with the Russians to reduce their stockpiles and that such talks between two powers was the best way to go.
