News in Brief Michael Spies | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF
News in Brief section from the NPT News
in Review, the daily NGO newsletter from the third session
of the
Preparatory Committee for the 2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty Review Conference Friday, 15 May 2009
Stalemate over the second draft
• The Chair announced that after his consultations,
he could not find consensus on moving forward on the basis
of his second draft text (CRP.4/Rev.1).
• Several members of NAM—Cuba, Egypt, and Iran—plus
the United Kingdom indicated that they had remaining issues
with the text preventing them from supporting it.
• The United Kingdom indicated its problem was relatively
minor, involving a request to change one word in the preambular
part of the text.
• Cuba, which expressed support for the first draft,
indicated its primary problem with the revised text was that
it watered down the disarmament portion. Cuba described the
remaining substantive disputes between delegations as major,
contrasting with the majority of other views (including the
NAM), which described the text as close to consensus.
• Egypt also described the differences over the text
as major, faulting it for losing its previous balance on disarmament
and for not being definite enough on recommending the RevCon
adopt measures on the Middle East.
• Iran did not indicate the precise nature of its issue
with the revised text.
• A number of delegations explicitly expressed support
for the revised draft as it stood, including Australia, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa.
• Other delegations that spoke, such as China, the United
States, and others, suggested the text could be further improved
but did not indicate if they could support it in its present
form.
Continuing consultations?
• The chair assessed that he did not believe it would
be productive to produce another draft or conduct further
consultations.
• Several delegations urged the chair to continue consultations
and to work through the end of the conference to achieve consensus.
Delegations expressing this view included Mexico, the UK,
the US, Chile, the Netherlands, the Africa Group, Germany,
South Africa, and the Republic of Korea.
• Others also expressed support for further consultations,
including China, Russia, Canada, Japan, Cuba, Australia, Egypt,
and Malaysia. Cuba expressed skepticism that consensus could
be reached within available time.
• Algeria and Malaysia encouraged those delegations
who urged the chair to continue consultations, to also be
flexible in order to achieve consensus.
• Iran argued against conducting further discussions
over the text.
• The Chair ultimately stuck to his original assessment
that the remaining issue could not be overcome and set the
next plenary for Friday morning.
