DISARMAMENT: A Proposal to Kickstart Multilateral Conference

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 6 2002 (IPS) - An initiative sponsored by Algeria, Belgium, Colombia, Chile and Sweden may be the key to resolving differences that have kept the international Conference on Disarmament at an impasse for the last four years.

The proposal is based on a re-opening of the debate on all polemical issues that have prevented the conference from achieving agreement on a work agenda since the one approved in 1998.

On the negotiating table in Geneva are the most sensitive matters, such as the so-called negative security measures, which are the guarantees demanded by countries with no nuclear weapons “against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons”.

The second entails demands for “cessation of the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament”, which most of the 66 member nations of the Conference on Disarmament are asking of the world’s nuclear powers.

Another touchy issue is the proposal for a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

To that end, the bloc of developing countries known as the Group of 21 (G21) seeks to establish a system for monitoring and verification measures of existing stocks of fissile material.

The fourth issue, championed by China and Russia and resisted by the United States, focuses on preventing an arms race in outer space, the threat of what is known as “Star Wars”, an initiative begun under former U.S. president Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and taken up by current president, George W. Bush.

In response to these four critical issues, the new proposal suggests the creation of ad hoc committees to study the matters involved and present reports to the Conference.

The new initiative also calls for the designation of three special coordinators, who would be entrusted with evaluating the opinion of the Conference’s member states about new modes of mass destruction, such as radiological weapons, about a comprehensive programme of disarmament, and about transparency in weapons- related areas.

The authors of the proposal presented to the Conference on Disarmament were Mohamed-Salah Dembri, of Algeria, Jean Lint, of Belgium, Camilo Reyes, of Colombia, Juan Enrique Vega, of Chile, and Henrik Salander, of Sweden.

The initiative also seeks to overcome a regulatory stumbling block that, in addition to the profound differences separating the world’s military powers, has favoured the stagnation of talks over the last four years.

Two articles of the Conference on Disarmament’s internal regulations establish that the forum must approve the agenda of its annual sessions, which includes the matters to be negotiated, and the work plan, which establishes the modality of the discussions.

The insurmountable differences of some of the member states have prevented the approval of at least one of the two instruments necessary for the work of the Conference to continue.

The five diplomats who drafted the proposal call for reforming the regulations so that the agenda and the work plan are extended to cover at least two consecutive years.

The delegates from some countries expressed reservations about extending the agenda or work plan because, they said, international circumstances can quickly change, rendering the discussion items obsolete.

The diplomats behind the new plan said they agree that the programme should be modified if the international panorama changes significantly, but stress that the Conference continues to undermine itself in the meantime due to the absence of a work plan.

The Conference, the only multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, has approved several important treaties on arms control since it was created in 1979 as the result of the first Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly, held in 1978.

Two of the most important of these international legal instruments are the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The proposal by the five delegates was well received at the Conference, currently in its final period of annual sessions, which began Jul 31 and end Sep 13.

So far, there has been no public announcement by any of the member countries of opposition to the proposal, which would bog down the negotiations once again, pointed out one of the authors of the text.

The nuclear powers — United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France — in practice wield the threat of veto within the Conference on Disarmament.

The two other countries that have publicly acknowledged their nuclear weapons abilities, India and Pakistan, belong to the G21.

The delegates from India and Pakistan heard the proposal in conference with the group of developing countries and said they would request instruction from their respective governments.

The United States, which is part of the Western Group, as are Great Britain and France, and the rest of the European countries, has so far kept quiet on its opinion of the text.

Russia, which has yet to join a formal group within the Conference, like the rest of the former socialist republics has expressed willingness to work with the new proposal.

The Conference on Disarmament has just a few weeks to discuss the initiative that could serve to jumpstart negotiations on key issues. But the five diplomats who authored the initiative believe a new attempt could be made in January, when the 2003 sessions begin.