Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East – First Cttee debate – Press release (excerpts)

FIRST COMMITTEE APPROVES TEXTS CALLING FOR STRENGHTHENED ABM TREATY,

‘NEW AGENDA’ TO ACHIEVE NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE WORLD

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The General Assembly, stressing the paramount importance of full and strict compliance by the parties with the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty), would call for continued efforts to strengthen it and preserve its integrity and validity, so that it remained a cornerstone in maintaining global strategic stability, according to one of two draft resolutions on nuclear weapons approved this morning by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).

The draft resolution on the ABM Treaty was approved by a recorded vote of 78 in favour to 3 against (Federated States of Micronesia, India, Israel), with 65 abstentions.  Also by its terms, the Assembly would urge all Member States to support efforts aimed at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.  It would support further efforts by the international community, in the light of emerging developments, towards safeguarding the inviolability and integrity of the Treaty, which is in the strongest interest of the international community.  (For details of the vote, see Annex I.)

Under the terms of a second nuclear-related draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world:  the need for a new agenda”, the Assembly would call for:  the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons based on unilateral initiatives and as an integral part of the nuclear arms reduction and disarmament process; measures to further reduce the operational status of nuclear weapons systems; a diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies to minimize the risk that those weapons would ever be used; and, to facilitate the process of their total elimination, the engagement of all the nuclear-weapon States in the process leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.  The text was approved by a vote of 146 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 8 abstentions (Bhutan, France, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, Monaco, Russian Federation, Uzbekistan).  (See Annex IV).

Before approving the draft resolution as a whole, the Committee took separate votes, on the fifteenth preambular paragraph and operative paragraph 16.  

Preambular paragraph 15, which welcomes the Final Document of the Sixth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons (NPT), was approved by a recorded vote of 151 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 1 abstention (Cuba).  (See Annex II).

  It approved operative paragraph 16 by a vote of 151 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan).  That provision notes the agreement at the Sixth Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT that legally binding security assurances by the five nuclear-weapon States to the non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the Treaty strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime.  The Assembly would call upon the Preparatory Committee to make recommendations to the 2005 Review Conference on that issue.  (See Annex III).

Introductions of revised draft resolutions were made by the representatives of Sweden and Mali.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Pakistan, Japan, France (on behalf of the European Union), Cuba, Brazil, Pakistan, India, United States, Nigeria, Syria, Azerbaijan, Chile, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Sweden, Nepal, Argentina, New Zealand, Peru, Ghana, Turkmenistan, China, Turkey, United Kingdom, Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to conclude action on draft resolutions.

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Committee Work Programme

A revised draft text sponsored by Egypt on the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (document A/C.1/55/L.29/Rev.1) would have the Assembly reaffirm the importance of Israel’s accession to the NPT and placement of all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards, in realizing the goal of universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East.

The Assembly would call upon that State to accede to the Treaty without further delay and not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, and to renounce possession of nuclear weapons, and to place all its unsafeguarded nuclear facilities under full-scope IAEA safeguards as an important confidence-building measure among all States of the region, and as a step towards enhancing peace and security.  It would ask the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly at its next session on the implementation of the present resolution.  The revised text would add a new operative paragraph 1, by which the Assembly would welcome the conclusions on the Middle East of the 2000 NPT Review Conference.

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