Disarmament.

The nuclear-weapon tests conducted by India on 11 and 13 May and by Pakistan on 28 and 30 May were described by the Security Council on 4 June as constituting a "serious threat to global efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament". It demanded that India and Pakistan refrain from further tests and called upon all States "not to carry out any nuclear-weapon-test explosion in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" (CTBT).

By unanimously adopting resolution 1172 (1998), the Council also called upon India and Pakistan "immediately to stop their nuclear-weapons development programmes, to refrain from weaponization or from the deployment of nuclear weapons, to cease development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, to confirm their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to weapons of mass destruction or missiles capable of delivering them and to undertake appropriate commitments in that regard".

In expressing its firm conviction that the international regime on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons should be maintained and consolidated, the Council recalled that, in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), India or Pakistan "cannot have the status of a nuclear-weapon State". It urged both countries, and all other States that had not yet done so, to become Parties to the NPT and CTBT "without delay and without conditions".

India and Pakistan were also urged to: "participate, in a positive spirit and on the basis of the agreed mandate", in negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other explosive devices, with a view to reaching early agreement; exercise maximum restraint and avoid threatening military movements, cross-border violations, or other provocations in order to prevent an aggravation of the situation; and resume the dialogue between them on all outstanding issues, particularly those pertaining to peace and security, in order to remove tensions between them, and "find mutually acceptable solutions that addressed the root causes of those tensions, including Kashmir". Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 30 May urgently reiterated his appeal to the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to "demonstrate their leadership at this critical stage by exercising restraint and reducing the high tensions between them". Noting that India had already announced a moratorium on future tests, he called upon Pakistan to make a parallel declaration and accede to CTBT without preconditions. In a 28 May statement, he suggested both Governments might also sign a no-first-use pledge with each other and freeze their nuclear-weapons development programmes.

India and Pakistan should announce immediately a cessation to all further testing of nuclear weapons, renounce their nuclear-weapons programmes, and sign and ratify CTBT unconditionally, Ambassador Clive Pearson of New Zealand told the Conference on Disarmament on 2 June, on behalf of 46 member States.

After intensive consultations, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on 11 August decided to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to negotiate a fissile material cut-off treaty.

CD Member States praised the consensus achieved to establish the Ad Hoc Committee on banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Several States stressed that it should be a step toward creating an Ad Hoc Committee on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. Others said the scope of the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee, and whether it should deal with past, present or future stockpiles of fissile material, were important issues that had to be agreed upon.