Conference on Disarmament: hope for chemical weapons ban in 1992.

A final agreement in 1992 on an international convention banning chemical weapons was predicted at the conclusion of this year's session of the Conference on Disarmament.

"Our work has acquired a qualitatively new content, and negotiations have now entered a final stage", said Serguei Batsanov, outgoing Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical Weapons. The scope of the future convention had been expanded to include such a fundamental obligation as the prohibition of use of chemical weapons. Moreover, the Committee had been mandated to intensify the negotiations "with the view to striving to achieve a final agreement on the Convention by 1992", he added.

This new hope was largely attributable to a United States proposal announced in May, dealing with two key obstacles in the negotiations. In a message to the Conference, United States President George Bush said his country would drop its insistence on a right of retaliation with chemical weapons and on keeping 2 per cent of its chemical weapons arsenal until all chemical weapons-capable States had signed the convention.

Concluding the session on 4 September, the Conference adopted its annual report to the General Assembly's forty-sixth session, which contains the reports of its five Ad Hoc Committees on chemical weapons, a nuclear-test ban, the prevention of an arms race in outer space, on radiological weapons and on security assurances for non-nuclear-weapon States. It also received a report from the expert group on seismic events.

During the seven-month session, which began on 22 January and was held in three parts, the Conference also considered other disarmament issues: cessation of a nuclear-arms race and nuclear disarmament, disarmament and prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters. Agreement on an organizational framework for consideration of the item dealing with the comprehensive programme of disarmament still eluded the Conference.

The Conference is a multilateral negotiating body on disarmament consisting of the five nuclear-weapon States (China, France, USSR, United Kingdom and United States) and 34 other countries. Non-members are invited, upon their request, to participate in its work.

Breakthrough reported

Although the United States proposal was considered a "breakthrough" by some delegates, many felt that remaining problems surrounding a chemical weapons ban should not be underestimated. Discussions on challenge inspection, for example, hinted at major difficulties, according to Adolf Ritter von Wagner, the new Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical Weapons. A cost-effective and practicable system of verification of the chemical industry, while balancing breadth of coverage with protection of legitimate industrial activity, must be found, he added.

These problems could be solved easily if there was political will to do so. The price of acceptance of the chemical weapons convention was worthwhile, it was widely felt, because of increased security and the creation of the climate of confidence in which international cooperation and peaceful trade in chemicals could prosper.

Nuclear-test ban

Re-establishing its Ad Hoc Committee on a Nuclear-Test Ban, the Conference requested the Committee to initiate, as a first step towards achieving a treaty, substantive work on specific and interrelated test-ban issues, including the treaty's structure and scope, as well as verification and compliance.

The Committee reported that it "had touched upon the major issues in considerable detail" and that its work was "useful in preparing ground for future in-depth consideration" of the subject.

It commended the work of the Ad Hoc Group on seismic events, stating that the major technical experiments conducted by the Group would contribute to elaborating seismic verification mechanisms.

The central purpose of nuclear testing, many contended during the debate, was the modernization of nuclear weapons. A comprehensive nuclear-test ban would help halt the next round of the vertical nuclear-arms race, namely, the development of "third" generation or "direct energy" weapons.

Other matters

The Conference recognized that the legal regime applicable to outer space, although it played a significant role in preventing an arms race in that environment, did not by itself guarantee that outer space would not be used for military purposes.

The Conferences stressed the need to consolidate and reinforce that regime and the importance of strict compliance with existing agreements, both bilateral and multi-lateral. It recognized the crucial role of bilateral negotiations between the USSR and the United States, noting that bilateral and multilateral efforts were complementary.

As to security guarantees to non-nuclear-weapon States, the Conference reaffirmed that those countries should be effectively assured against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, pending effective measures of nuclear disarmament. In debate, specific difficulties were aired relating to differing perceptions of security interests among States, thus preventing a "common formula". Nevertheless, delegations demonstrated a readiness to pursue the search for a common approach on the substance of negative security assurances.

The Ad Hoc Committee working on a draft convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of radiological weapons said its work had contributed further clarification of different approaches on important subjects under consideration.