General Assembly
Security Council

Distr. GENERAL  

10 July 1995

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

GENERAL ASSEMBLY  SECURITY COUNCIL
Fiftieth session  Fiftieth year
Item 70 (l) of the preliminary list*
GENERAL AND COMPLETE DISARMAMENT:
  NON-PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS OF
  MASS DESTRUCTION AND OF VEHICLES
  FOR THEIR DELIVERY IN ALL ITS ASPECTS


    Letter dated 3 July 1995 from the Permanent Representative of
    the United States of America to the United Nations addressed
to the Secretary-General


  I have  the honour  to enclose  herewith a  statement made  by the  United
States  Government  on 1  July  1995,  the  occasion  of the  twenty-seventh
anniversary  of  the  opening  for  signature  of  the  Treaty  on  the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

  May I  ask for  your kind  assistance in  circulating the  statement as  a
document of  the General  Assembly,  under item  70 (l)  of the  preliminary
list, and of the Security Council.


(Signed)  Madeleine K. ALBRIGHT












________________________

  *  A/50/50/Rev.1.

95-20394 (E)   110795/...
*9520394*
 Annex

        Statement on the occasion of the twenty-seventh
        anniversary of the opening for signature of the
        Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons, 1 July 1995


  On  1 July  1968, President  Lyndon  Johnson  and representatives  from 60
other  countries signed  the  Treaty  on  the Non-Proliferation  of  Nuclear
Weapons in  the East Room  of the White House.  Since  the Treaty was signed
and entered  into force  in 1970,  the Treaty  on  the Non-Proliferation  of
Nuclear Weapons has achieved truly historic importance.

  As  of 1  July 1995,  over  170  countries have  become non-nuclear-weapon
States parties  to the Treaty, thereby  making a  legally binding commitment
not to  develop or acquire  nuclear weapons.   In addition, each  one of the
179  States parties, including  the 5  nuclear-weapon States,  has agreed to
pursue negotiations in good faith on  effective measures relating to nuclear
disarmament, which remains our ultimate goal.

  The last 12 months have been  extremely productive for achieving  our twin
objectives of  limiting the  spread of  nuclear weapons  and reducing  their
number. Most importantly,  in May 1995, the State  parties to the Treaty  on
the Non-Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons decided, without conditions,  that
the Treaty would continue in force  indefinitely in accordance with  article
X.2 of the Treaty.

  Other recent developments have also contributed  to reducing the threat of
nuclear war.

  Since 1  July last year, 15 countries have become parties to the Treaty on
the  Non-Proliferation  of Nuclear  Weapons  as  non-nuclear-weapon  States,
including Algeria, Argentina, Chile and Ukraine,  all of which have peaceful
nuclear facilities.  There  remain only 10  countries in the world that  are
not  bound by the Treaty or other comparable agreements.   Of these 10, only
3   countries  have   not  placed   all   their  nuclear   facilities  under
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

  The United States has continued to dismantle nuclear  weapons at a rate of
between  1,000 and 2,000 per  year.  For  the first  time, the United States
has  placed  nuclear  weapons  material  from   its  stockpile  under   IAEA
safeguards.

  In December 1994, the United States  and the Russian Federation,  together
with Ukraine,  Belarus and Kazakstan,  brought the  Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty  (START I)  into force.   Nine thousand  nuclear weapons  from United
States and former Soviet strategic delivery  vehicles will have been removed
from deployment when the Treaty is fully implemented.

  In  his 21  January 1995  State of  the Union  address,  President Clinton
called upon  the Senate  to  approve START  II.    The Senate  responded  by
beginning  START  II  hearings  on  31  January.   When  START  II  is fully
implemented,  an additional  5,000  nuclear weapons  will have  been removed
from the deployed arsenals of the United States and the Russian Federation.

  Also  in   January,  the   United  States  extended   its  moratorium   on
nuclearweapon  testing until  a comprehensive  test-ban treaty  enters  into
force, on the assumption that such a  treaty will be signed by  30 September
1996.

  In  March,  President  Clinton  announced that  the  United  States  would
withdraw permanently  200 metric tons of  nuclear weapons  material from its
stockpile.    The  United States  will  also reduce  its  stockpile of  high

enriched  uranium from  nuclear weapons  by  converting  it to  low enriched
uranium for use in  power reactors.  The  United States has  also agreed  to
purchase 500  metric  tons of  high  enriched  uranium, previously  used  in
dismantled  Russian  nuclear  weapons,  which  has  been  converted  to  low
enriched uranium for use in power reactors.

  Also in  March, the Conference  on Disarmament  agreed to establish  an ad
hoc committee to negotiate a multilateral ban  on the production of  fissile
material for  nuclear  weapons or  other  nuclear  explosive devices.    The
United States and the Russian Federation have agreed to cease production  of
plutonium  for  use  in nuclear  explosive devices.    In April,  the United
Kingdom of Great Britain  and Northern Ireland  announced that it no  longer
produced fissile material for nuclear weapons.

  In  April, the  United States,  the United  Kingdom of  Great Britain  and
Northern  Ireland,  the  Russian  Federation  and  France  harmonized  their
policies prohibiting the  use of nuclear weapons against  non-nuclear-weapon
States  that are parties to  the Treaty on  the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons except in  the unlikely event of  an attack by  a non-nuclear-weapon
State allied  or associated with a  nuclear-weapon State  against a nuclear-
weapon State or its allies.

  On 11  April, the  United Nations  Security Council  adopted by  consensus
resolution 984 (1995), setting forth, in  unprecedented detail, the means by
which to respond in  the event that a  non-nuclear-weapon State party to the
Treaty  on the Non-Proliferation  of Nuclear  Weapons is  subject to nuclear
aggression or threat of such aggression.

  At the 1995 Treaty on  the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Review and
Extension  Conference, the  parties to  the  Treaty  agreed on  an ambitious
agenda including the adoption of the following measures and undertakings:

  (a)    Universal adherence  to  the  Treaty  on  the Non-Proliferation  of
Nuclear Weapons as an urgent priority;

  (b)     A  universal  and   internationally  and  effectively   verifiable
comprehensive test-ban treaty no later than  1996; pending entry into  force
of such  a treaty,  the nuclear-weapon  States should  exercise the  "utmost
restraint";

  (c)  A convention banning the production  of fissile material for  nuclear
weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;

   (d)   The determined  pursuit of  systematic and  progressive efforts  to
reduce nuclear weapons globally;

  (e)    The  development  of  nuclear-weapon-free  zones  as  well  as  the
establishment of  zones free of  all weapons of  mass destruction should  be
encouraged as a matter of priority;

  (f)   Full-scope  IAEA safeguards  as  a  condition of  supplying  nuclear
equipment and material;

  (g)   Increasing  the capability  of  IAEA  to detect  undeclared  nuclear
activities.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons parties also  agreed
to strengthening and making more substantive the Treaty's review process.

  The  United States  fully supports  this agenda and  looks forward  to its
substantial implementation  by  the  time of  the next  Treaty  on the  Non-
Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons review  conference in  the year 2000.   In
this context, we continue to urge all of  the nuclear-weapon States to  join
in a global moratorium  on nuclear-weapon testing  as we work to complete  a
comprehensive test-ban treaty at the earliest possible time.

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