31 August 2006

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard statements from Kazakhstan on the anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, and Italy and Sweden on the relevance of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty for cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament.

Kazakhstan said that 15 years ago, President Nursultan Nazarbayev had closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where nuclear explosions had been conducted from 1949 to 1989. The closure of the test site had been the first step in the process that had later became a core of Kazakhstan’s disarmament policy. Today, Kazakhstan was an active participant in ongoing negotiations among regional countries to establish a nuclear weapons free zone in Central Asia and, on 8 September, five Central Asian countries were expected to sign a treaty for the establishment of such a zone.

Italy noted that a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) was a necessary step to achieve nuclear disarmament. Italy presented to the Conference a document – cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament relevance of an FMCT for cessation of the nuclear arms race, nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation - in addition to the two working papers, one on entry into force and the other on the relevance of an FMCT for nuclear terrorism, which were presented earlier this year.

Sweden said the anniversary of the closing of the nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk was something truly worth celebrating, and expressed the wish that they had more anniversaries like that to celebrate. Sweden was pleased the representative of Italy had highlighted the roots of the FMCT and the key role that it played in disarmament. There was a tendency for people to say that the FMCT was a non-proliferation measure. It was not. Its roots lay in nuclear disarmament.

Ambassador Anton Pinter of Slovakia, the President of the Conference, welcomed two groups of visitors: participants in the 2006 United Nations Programme of Fellowships on Disarmament and a group of professors who were visiting a number of UN bodies in Geneva.

Italy said these 50 professors were not tourists but teachers who were here to learn and to multiply what they had learned to their students. Therefore, their presence at the Conference was relevant to the issue of education on disarmament, which was strongly promoted by some delegations. Sweden said it was very pleased to see that at the back of the room they had the future – the fellows, and the Italian teachers, who should do their part to inform their students of what they should do to make the world a safer place.

The President said this plenary would be followed by an informal plenary during which he would introduce the draft report of the Conference to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session.

The next plenary of the Conference will be held on Wednesday, 6 September at 10 a.m. and it will be followed by an informal meeting to start the first reading of the draft report.

Statements

KAIRAT ABUSSEITOV (Kazakhstan) said that 15 years ago, on 29 August 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev had closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where nuclear explosions had been conducted from 1949 to 1989. The closure of the test site had been the first step in the process that had later became a core of Kazakhstan’s disarmament policy. After gaining independence, Kazakhstan had signed the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, and in December 1993 the Parliament ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. A year later, Kazakhstan – along with Belarus and Ukraine – had been granted security assurances by the nuclear powers in recognition of its full and undisputable implementation of disarmament commitments, and it concluded the Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1994.

Mr. Abusseitov emphasized the significance of the decision to choose non-nuclear status given the fact that Kazakhstan had possessed the so-called “full nuclear weapon cycle” on its soil, including uranium mining and reprocessing as well as the capability to produce and test nuclear devices. The political will of President Nazarbayev had been a major factor in advancing the course of disarmament. Today, Kazakhstan was an active participant in ongoing negotiations among regional countries to establish a nuclear weapons free zone in Central Asia and, on 8 September, five Central Asian countries were expected to sign a treaty for the establishment of such a zone. Despite all the rehabilitation efforts, the consequences of testing in Semipalatinsk remained a matter of concern, not only for Kazakhstan but also for the whole international community. The United Nations had recognized the urgency of the problem by adopting several General Assembly resolutions on Semipalatinsk and elaborating a range of assistance projects. The major challenge faced by the Government of Kazakhstan today was to improve the situation in the health and environment sectors, and they were extremely grateful to the United Nations agencies, individual countries and non-governmental organizations who had contributed and continued to contribute to assisting the people of Semipalatinsk.

CARLO TREZZA (Italy) said several developments had recently taken place with regard to issues relevant to the “nuclear disarmament/cessation of the nuclear arms race” item of the Conference’s agenda with particular reference to a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT). These developments took place after the structured and focused sessions which were held during May. They included the Final Document of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Putrajaya last May which strongly focused on nuclear disarmament and the results of the Saint Petersburg G8 summit which supported the early commencement of negotiations on an FMCT. These and other developments deserved the attention of the Conference at this stage, bearing also in mind the imminence of the deliberations in the General Assembly’s First Committee. Therefore, Italy wished to raise item one of the agenda to introduce a document which was being circulated today to underline the intrinsic pertinence of an FMCT negotiation for item 1 of the agenda.

Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the final document of the 2000 NPT Review Conference were in Italy’s view the best guidance, at least for States party to the NPT, on what was meant by nuclear disarmament. The same went for cessation of a nuclear arms race. Italy believed that FMCT fully belonged, conceptually, to both categories. An FMCT was also relevant for nuclear non-proliferation, but Italy found that such relevance was mainly of a subsidiary nature. Italy thus wished to highlight that an FMCT was a necessary step to achieve nuclear disarmament. Italy presented this document – cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament relevance of an FMCT for cessation of the nuclear arms race, nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation - in addition to the two working papers, one on entry into force and the other on the relevance of an FMCT for nuclear terrorism, which were presented by Italy earlier this year.

ELISABET BORSIIN BONNIER (Sweden) said that she was very pleased to see that at the back of the room they had the future – the fellows, and the Italian teachers, who should do their part to inform their students of what they should do to make the world a safer place. The anniversary of the closing of the nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk was something truly worth celebrating, and she expressed the wish that they had more anniversaries like that to celebrate.

Ms. Borsiin Bonnier said that she was pleased the representative of Italy had highlighted the roots of the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) and the key role that it played in disarmament. There was a tendency for people to say that the FMCT was a non-proliferation measure. It was not. Its roots lay in nuclear disarmament. The basic rational for the FMCT was quite simple: while not alone capable of ending nuclear weapons production, it would close the taps of fissile materials for such weapons. Applied to both nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon States, it would over time remove an element of discrimination between those two categories. Such a treaty was particularly urgent in view of the recent setback in the 1995 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but also in the disarmament field as a whole. It was up to the Disarmament Conference to bring them back on track, and they could do that by negotiating a fissile material ban. It was a key issue if they were to get back in business.

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