Parties to Non-Proliferation Treaty unable to agree on a final declaration.

Parties to Non-Proliferation Treaty unable to agree on a final declaration

The Fourth Review Conference of Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which met in Geneva from 20 August to 15 September, was unable to reach a consensus on a final declaration.

The difficulties centered around a call for a commitment on the part of the nuclear-weapon States parties to the Treaty for an early comprehensive ban on nuclear testing and on a proposed mention of step by step bilateral nuclear test-ban negotations under way between the USSR and the United States.

Outside this disagreement, the Conference was widely regarded as useful and positive. During the four-week session, the Conference, working through three Main Committees, achieved consensus on a wide range of recommendations concerning implementation of Treaty provisions on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, safeguarding of nuclear materials, establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones and promotion of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Consensus proved elusive, however, concerning the promotion of nuclear disarmament.

The USSR and the United States both affirmed that the Conference had been useful and had resulted in a reaffirmation of States parties' commitment to non-proliferation; both also stressed the need to enhance and extend the Treaty in the future.

Mexico stressed that the linkage of the Treaty's other goals with the question of progress in achieving a comprehensive test ban and general and complete disarmament would continue into 1995, when States parties must meet again to decide whether the Treaty should be extended indefinitely or for a further period. At the Review Conference, Mexico led those States parties demanding that the final declaration include a statement to the effect that the continued testing of nuclear weapons would put the future of the Treaty in grave doubt.

Three of the five nuclear-weapon States (USSR, United Kingdom, United States) are parties to the Treaty, while China and France have not acceded to it. Eighty-four States parties (some 60 per cent of the membership) participated in the Conference.

Conference President Oswaldo de Rivero Barreto of Peru, at the outset of the Conference, said it was being held in a "propitious atmosphere" and in the context of a new concept of international security not based on ideological and military factors, but rather on the removal of ideologies from international relations and other factors.

Messages were also read from President Mikhail Gorbachev of the USSR and President George Bush of the United States. Both expressed strong support for the NPT.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, in a statement made jointly with the German Democratic Republic, reaffirmed adherence to the NPT regime, as well as to commitments not to produce, acquire or control nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

IAEA Director-General Hans Blix said that it would be desirable for fissionable material recovered through nuclear disarmament to be used as far as possible as safeguarded fuel for electricity generation. "The world would undoubtedly feel more comfortable if this material were burnt up than if it were stored without time-limit and were theoretically available for the production of new weapons."