UN speakers urge Pakistan to free up arms talks
UNITED NATIONS - Heaping pressure on Pakistan, a high-level U.N.
meeting called on Friday for talks to start immediately on a treaty to
ban production of fissile material used as fuel for nuclear weapons.
But Pakistan has insisted it will continue to block such talks,
arguing that a ban would put it at a permanent disadvantage to its
nuclear rival India. The dispute has led to deadlock at the 65-nation
Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
At the U.N. meeting of some 70 states to discuss the paralysis at the
conference, speakers avoided openly naming Pakistan, but several
referred to “one country” that was causing the problem.
In a closing summary of the views expressed, U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said there was “broad agreement on the need to immediately
start negotiations on a ... treaty banning the production of fissile
material.”
Continued impasse could result in states going outside the Geneva
conference, known as the “CD,” to tackle the issue, Ban warned.
Support has appeared to be growing in Geneva to find another approach
— possibly small-group talks in parallel to CD sessions. A precedent was
set when Canada and Norway moved talks on a landmine ban out of the
forum, eventually clinching the landmark 1997 Ottawa Treaty.
At Friday’s U.N. meeting, Western powers sharply attacked Pakistan’s
blockage of the CD, which requires consensus for its actions.
“It strikes us as unwarranted for a single country to abuse the
consensus principle and thereby frustrate everyone else’s desire to
resume serious disarmament efforts,” said U.S. delegate Gary Samore, a
special adviser to President Barack Obama.
Washington understood that all countries needed to protect their
security interests, and with that principle in place, “no country need
fear the prospect of (fissile material) negotiations,” Samore said.
British junior foreign minister Alistair Burt said blocking the
negotiations was “damaging for multilateral arms control.”
Launched in 1978, the CD has clinched treaties banning biological and
chemical weapons as well as underground nuclear tests. Its members
include all five official nuclear powers — the United States, Russia,
Britain, France and China.
But it has been unable to reach consensus on substantive work for the
past 12 years. Pakistan’s refusal since January to launch negotiations
on fissile material like plutonium and highly enriched uranium is the
latest obstacle.
Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva,
said earlier this month his country would continue to hold out, arguing
that India has an unfair advantage with bigger fissile material
stockpiles and “discriminatory” nuclear cooperation deals with the
United States.
“Pakistan’s security concerns can be addressed only once we have
developed sufficient capacity to ensure our deterrent is credible in the
face of growing asymmetry,” he told Reuters. “My instructions are, ‘We
continue to maintain our position.’”
Pakistan did not speak at Friday’s meeting in New York. No decisions
were made, but Ban said he would ask a panel of advisers to review the
issues raised.
Separately, French delegate Jacques Audibert said Paris would host a
meeting of the five official nuclear powers next year to discuss their
obligations stemming from a May conference on nuclear non-proliferation.
The conference called on the powers to pursue negotiations ultimately
aimed at the total abolition of nuclear weapons.
- Reuter
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