United Nations General Assembly

Original: English

Fifty-seventh Session

First Committee

Agenda item 66

Brazil, Egypt, Fiji, Ireland, Mexico, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sweden, Tuvalu and Ukraine

Reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 55/33 D of2O November 2000,

Stressing the unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States, in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of The Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament, a goal to which all States parties to the Treaty are committed under its article VI, 1

Recognizing that disarmament and non-proliferation are essential for the maintenance of international peace and security,

Reaffirming the necessity of strict compliance by all parties with their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the necessity of upholding their commitments in associated decisions and final documents agreed at the 2000 and 1995 Review Conference,

Noting the advisory opinion of the International Court of justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons issued at The Hague on g July 1996,2

Noting the importance attached to the issue of reducing non-strategic nuclear weapons by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in his report to the Millennium Assembly,³

Stressing the commitment made in the Final Document of the 2Q00 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons,⁴

Concerned that the total number of nuclear weapons deployed and in stockpile still amounts to many thousands,

Reiterating the particular responsibility of the nuclear-weapon States for transparent, verifiable and irreversible reductions in nuclear weapons leading to nuclear disarmament,

Emphasizing that further reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be accorded priority and be carried out in a comprehensive manner,

1. Agrees that reductions and elimination of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be included as an integral part of the nuclear-arms reduction and disarmament process;

2. Agrees further that reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be carried out in a transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner;

3. Agrees on the importance of preserving, reaffirming, implementing and building upon the 1991 and 1992 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/Russian Federation on non-strategic nuclear weapons;

4. Calls upon the Russian Federation and the United States of America to formalize their Presidential Nuclear Initiatives into legal instruments and to initiate negotiations on further effectively verifiable reductions of their non-strategic nuclear weapons;

5. Stresses the Importance of special security and physical protection measures for the transport and storage of non-strategic nuclear weapons, and calls upon all nuclear-weapon States in possession of such weapons to take the necessary steps in this regard;

6. Calls for further confidence-building and transparency measures to reduce the threats posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons;

7. Calls also for concrete agreed measures to further reduce the operational status of non-strategic nuclear weapons Systems;

8. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eight session an item entitled "Reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons".

1. 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty’ on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, vol. I (NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I-IV), Part I, Article VI and eighth to twelfth preambular paragraphs, para. 6 under para. 15.

2. A/51/218, annex; see also Legality of he Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons. Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports 1996, p. 226.

3. See A/54/2000.

4. See 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, vol.1 (NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I and II)), Part I, Article VI and eighth to twelfth preambular paragraphs, para. 9 under para. 15.