Thirty states, plus the European Union, used the two-day open plenary (9- 10 April) of the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) to lay out their analyses of the state of global disarmament. Since the two agenda items before the UNDC are so broad -- "ways and means to achieve nuclear disarmament" and "practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms" -- it left room for delegates to address virtual any item on the disarmament agenda -- and they did.

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

A common concern on nuclear disarmament was the importance of following up on the consensus commitments made at the 2000 NPT Review Conference. Ambassador Henrik Salander of Sweden, speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU), cited the steps agreed to at the Conference as "constitut[ing] a mutually reinforcing set of ways and means to achieve nuclear disarmament." He said, "We therefore believe it important that the report of this year's deliberations adhere, as far as possible, to the agreed language" of the NPT final document.

Those steps include entry into force of the Test Ban Treaty, negotiations on a fissile materials cut-off treaty, continuation of the strategic arms talks, and establishment in the Conference on Disarmament of "an appropriate subsidiary body with a mandate to deal with nuclear disarmament."

Amb. Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa shared this view saying the UNDC "should build upon, but in no way diminish, the undertakings given" at the NPT Conference, "South Africa will not lend its support to any effort that will undermine the success achieved at that Conference."

India, which (along with Pakistan, Israel and Cuba) is not a party to the NPT, was not so positive about the NPT outcome. Recent developments have belied the "tantalizing promises made in the NPT framework," Amb. Rakesh Sood said, "Instead of reinforcing the disarmament agenda in bilateral or multilateral settings, we saw the reality of unfulfilled promises, missed opportunities, search of unilateral advantages, hardening confrontational postures [and] threats to unravel instruments that form the basis of global security."

As they have in all disarmament fora, Russia and China continued their criticisms of the ballistic missile defense (BMD) proposal of the United States. Andrey Granovsky of Russia said, "Only on the condition that the [Anti-Ballistic Missile] Treaty is preserved and respected in its present form would it be possible to proceed with the reduction of strategic nuclear weapons in the framework of the START III process." He proposed instead "the creation, as appropriate, of non-strategic region- wide ABM systems to neutralize and counter missile threats." Amb. Hu Xiaodi of China called BMD "a disguised form of unilateral nuclear arms expansion."

The two also warned against the weaponization of space, as did Algeria, India, and Indonesia.

China also addressed an issue on the nuclear disarmament agenda that it has not been especially enthusiastic about: transparency. Hu said China "understands the good aspirations" of states for transparency "believing that the implementation of certain transparency measures, as an organic part of the efforts for a nuclear-weapons-free world, is necessary. But it has to be made clear that huge differences exist among nuclear-weapon states... Countries must be allowed to take different transparency measures at different stages."

Britain and France did not make statements separate from the EU presentation. The United States did not address the Commission.

Beyond the agreed nuclear disarmament priorities enshrined in the NPT consensus, Yurii Onischenko of Ukraine suggested some other areas for multilateral discussions: "reasons for possessing existing numbers of nuclear weapons,;" review of deterrence; the role of tactical nuclear weapons; transparency of weapons inventories; and "measures to promote irreversibility of weapons reductions."

Amb. Makmur Widodo of Indonesia highlighted the opportunities to deal with "some issues peripheral to the nuclear agenda such as irreversibility of nuclear disarmament measures and transparency with regard to weapons capabilities," as well as tactical weapons.

India also had a list of other nuclear disarmament proposals including respecting the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion that there exists an obligation to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons and translating that opinion into "a legal convention," endorsing the Millennium Summit's call for an international conference on eliminating nuclear dangers, and taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.

India did not refer to Pakistan's nuclear program but Pakistan did focus on its neighbor. Masood Khalid called Pakistan's nuclear program "reactive... India's nuclear tests left us with no choice but to carry out our nuclear tests."

North Korea dedicated its statement to blasting the US BMD plan, calling the US a "rogue state" for pursuing missile defenses. "As long as the United States continues picking on use in invoking the plea of the 'NMD', we will have no other choice but to take counter measures," Amb. Li Hyong Chol said, "Our counter measures will have no limit in their scope and depth and we have potentially, capacity and will to do so. Even if this entails an arms race between [North Korea] and the US and all other agreements are scrapped, we will have little to lose."

South Korea did not mention BMD. Lee Ho-Jin called for practical step- by-step measures for nuclear disarmament, including transparency and greater cuts in arsenals.

CONVENTIONAL ARMS

Since the focus of the conventional arms item is confidence-building measures (CBMs), countries that have already reached agreements with their neighbors on CBMs touted their initiatives. Europe, with both the treaty on conventional force reductions and CBMs under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held up these initiatives as models for other regions. Russia and Ukraine also promoted these instruments of transparency and verification. China pointed to the "Shanghai Five" framework (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) that has resulted in two agreements on force reductions in border areas. South Korea noted it and the OSCE had recently hosted a conference on studying the applicability of OSCE-type CBMs in Northeast Asia.

Numerous states identified the UN Register of Conventional Arms as an important CBM, while calling for greater adherence to the voluntary register of the transfers of seven types of large conventional weapons. Another initiative -- certain to be part of the deliberations at the International Conference on Small Arms in July -- is the improvement and standardization of arms export laws that might help stem the diversion of arms to conflict areas.

South Africa highlighted two other CBMs on the Conference's agenda: transparency, which could include expanding the UN Register to include smaller weapons or the creation of regional registers; and the destruction of "surplus, confiscated or collected weapons."

Since both items are in their second of three years on the agenda, no final decisions will come from this session. The UNDC will conclude on 27 April. Few public meetings will be held before then.

Home Page