John Hallam Friends of the Earth Sydney, 17 Lord Street, Newtown, NSW, Australia, 2042 Fax (61)(2)9517-3902 ph (61)(2)9517-3903 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd AUSTRALIAN PEACE COMMITTEE/FRIENDS OF THE EARTH NUKE WEAPON STATES PROMISE "WE'LL GET RID OF NUKES - EVENTUALLY" In a statement delivered to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference at United Nations Headquarters in New York yesterday (New York time), the five 'official' nuclear weapon states have promised to give up nuclear weapons 'eventually'. The P5 statement, delivered by the U.S., China, the UK, France, and Russia, states that: 'We reiterate our unequivocal commitment to the ultimate goals of a complete elimination of nuclear weapons and a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international safeguards'. However, Article VI of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty reads: "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." According to Irene Gale of the Australian Peace Committee and John Hallam, nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth, "It is highly significant that the nuclear weapons states refer to nuclear disarmament as an 'ultimate' goal, while the language of the treaty, article VI of which has been in force for thirty years, refers to cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament at an early date. The most optimistic spin that can be put on this statement, given that similar ones have been made by the P5 before, is that we would be in very deep trouble indeed if it had NOT been made." "It is also highly significant that within the last few days the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a journal founded by colleagues of Albert Einstien's, featuring the famous 'Atomic Clock', has obtained copies of a negotiating position on the ABM treaty and START-II from the US directed at Russia, in which the Russians were actually being discouraged from their favored position of very low missile and warhead numbers, to one in which larger numbers (up to 2,000) of warheads were to be kept on permanent hairtrigger alert, so as to provide a credible deterrent even with a US ABM system." "The P5 statement contains, like the Australian statement, no credible roadmap and no timetable for the elimination of nuclear weapons as per the terms of the NPT. It does contain a statement asking everyone to sign the CTBT (in spite of the fact that the US Senate has refused to sign it), it contains a call for the implementation of START-II, which is currently hostage to the US Senate ratifying a series of 1997 agreements it has made clear it will not ratify, and it contains a call for the negotiation of a fissile material cutoff treaty when no progress whatsoever has actually been made on this goal. It contains - surprisingly in view of US desires for an ABM system - a statement that the ABM treaty must be preserved." "We call on the nuclear weapons states to take on board the sensible recommendations of the New Agenda Coalition of nations led by New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt, and supported by the overwhelming majority of governments and NGOs on the planet, for a step by step program to eliminate nuclear weapons." John Hallam, 61-2-9517-3903 h61-2-9810-2598 Irene Gale AM, 61-8-8364-2291 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: FOE/APC RELEASE RE P5 STATEMENT
FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign Tue, 02 May 2000 00:32:59 -0700
