Measures to expand nuclear-weapon free zones discussed at New York conference
May 6, 2010
by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer, dispatched from New York
Just prior to the opening of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, the Conference of Parties of Nuclear-weapon Free Zone Treaties was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 30. Measures to enhance the treaties and challenges in expanding nuclear-weapon-free zones were discussed.
Five years after the previous conference held in 2005, 36 nations, among the 119 countries and regions involved in such treaties, attended this conference. As observers, 20 countries, including the United States, also attended.
While the change in attitude of the United States, the largest nuclear power, toward disarmament was evaluated highly, there was an outpouring of frustration over the lack of progress in implementing the Middle East Resolution, which was adopted at the 1995 NPT Review Conference with the aim of making the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction. With Israel's nuclear arsenal in mind, Egypt's U.N. Ambassador, Maged Abdelaziz, argued that participating nations take up this issue at the review conference.
Representatives of the governments of Kazakhstan and Guatemala, among others, called for the "negative security assurance," a pledge by the nuclear weapon states not to attack non-nuclear states, to be legally binding.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also present at the conference and commented: "My goal is for the whole world to be nuclear-weapon free. The Nuclear-weapon Free Zone Treaties (that have already taken effect) are successful examples of nuclear disarmament."
In a speech, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said: "Now is the time for governments to begin multilateral negotiations in order to establish a world without nuclear weapons."
(Originally published on May 2, 2010)
Just prior to the opening of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, the Conference of Parties of Nuclear-weapon Free Zone Treaties was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 30. Measures to enhance the treaties and challenges in expanding nuclear-weapon-free zones were discussed.
Five years after the previous conference held in 2005, 36 nations, among the 119 countries and regions involved in such treaties, attended this conference. As observers, 20 countries, including the United States, also attended.
While the change in attitude of the United States, the largest nuclear power, toward disarmament was evaluated highly, there was an outpouring of frustration over the lack of progress in implementing the Middle East Resolution, which was adopted at the 1995 NPT Review Conference with the aim of making the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction. With Israel's nuclear arsenal in mind, Egypt's U.N. Ambassador, Maged Abdelaziz, argued that participating nations take up this issue at the review conference.
Representatives of the governments of Kazakhstan and Guatemala, among others, called for the "negative security assurance," a pledge by the nuclear weapon states not to attack non-nuclear states, to be legally binding.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also present at the conference and commented: "My goal is for the whole world to be nuclear-weapon free. The Nuclear-weapon Free Zone Treaties (that have already taken effect) are successful examples of nuclear disarmament."
In a speech, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said: "Now is the time for governments to begin multilateral negotiations in order to establish a world without nuclear weapons."
(Originally published on May 2, 2010)
