[misc.headlines.unitex] <1/3> FIRST COMMITTEE HEARS SIX SPEAKERS: DEBATE ON DISARMAMENT

unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/25/89)

FIRST COMMITTEE HEARS SIX SPEAKERS: DEBATE ON DISARMAMENT

     Posting Date: 10/20/89        Copyright UNITEX Communications, 1989
     UNITEX Network, USA           ISSN: 1043-7932

     The First Committee (Political and Security) continued its
     disarmament debate this morning, hearing six speakers.

     Statements were made by the representatives of Canada, India,
     Hungary, Ukraine, China and Japan.

     Issues addressed included nuclear and conventional disarmament,
     the need for a chemical-weapons ban, the forthcoming review of
     the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the strengthening of
     multilateral disarmament machinery.

     When the Committee meets again today at 3 p.m., it will hear
     statements by the representatives of the Federal Republic of
     Germany, Spain, Turkey, Oman and Malaysia.

     Committee Programme

     The First Committee (Political and Security) met this morning to
     continue its two-week debate on 22 disarmament agenda items. The
     Committee began the debate on Monday, 16 October.

     Statements

     The first speaker, PEGGY MASON (Canada), said that progress had
     taken place in resolving regional conflicts in southern Africa,
     Indo-China and Central America, and in improving East-West
     relations, particularly with regard to arms control and
     disarmament.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and
     Warsaw Pact States were working to reduce conventional force
     levels in Europe.  The United States and the Soviet Union
     continued to make progress in their talks on nuclear arms
     control and chemical weapons.  Agreement on the "open skies"
     concept would open the territory of North America, Europe and
     the Soviet Union to "virtually unrestricted aerial
     surveillance", and it would mark unprecedented openness in
     military relations.

     Progress in international relations resulted from pragmatic
     approaches and a willingness to be flexible.  She was
     disappointed at the Disarmament Commission's failure to agree on
     its agenda items, and at the Conference on Disarmament's
     inability to agree on the basis for a mandate to establish an Ad
     Hoc Committee on a nuclear-test ban.  The work of the First
     Committee should proceed, as far as possible, on a consensus
     basis, to create a positive momentum for the work of those
     disarmament bodies.  In particular, she said there was an urgent
     need for conclusion of a treaty banning chemical weapons and of
     a verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty.  Such
     agreements should provide for effective verification, which was
     the means by which confidence was generated.

     The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was "the linch-pin of the
     nuclear non-proliferation regime", she continued, and if it was
     damaged the entire arms control process could be undermined.
     Therefore, the outcome of the forthcoming NPT Review Conference
     was of the utmost importance in shaping the role of the Treaty
     beyond 1995.  At this session, Canada would propose a ban on
     production of fissionable material for weapons purposes.
     Regarding outer space, she said that while more States were
     developing the capacity for space research and activity, it was
     important to ensure that outer space was used for exclusively
     peaceful purposes.

     KAMALESH SHARMA (India) said even if the United States and the
     Soviet Union halved their nuclear arsenals, as envisioned under
     the strategic arms reduction talks (START), they would still
     possess a total of 20,000 warheads, enough to destroy the planet
     25 times over.  His country had presented an Action Plan for
     general and complete disarmament to the Conference on
     Disarmament and the special Assembly session on disarmament.  The
     objective of the Plan was a world free of nuclear and chemical
     weapons, reduced levels of conventional weapons commensurate
     with defence needs, and the harnessing of science and technology
     for the benefit of mankind.

     Bilateral progress in disarmament had to be complemented by
     multilateral efforts which meant allowing the Conference on
     Disarmament to discharge its mandate.  The concept of nuclear
     parity must be dispensed with, and nuclear-weapon States should
     proceed with a freeze on the production of fissionable
     materials.  Safeguards should be elaborated to ensure that such
     materials were not recycled into other weapons.  Nuclear-weapon
     States had refused to heed international calls for a
     comprehensive nuclear-test ban and had continually modernized
     their nuclear weapons.  Claims that a nuclear-test ban could not
     be verified were false.  Seismic monitoring and other techniques
     were more than equal to the task.  Furthermore, the 1963 partial
     test ban should be amended into a comprehensive ban on testing.

     In 1965, India was a co-sponsor of a nuclear non-proliferation
     resolution adopted by the Assembly providing for a loophole-free
     ban on the spread of nuclear weapons and a balancing of
     responsibilties between nuclear and non-nuclear Powers.  Because
     the 1968 NPT failed to adhere to those principles India had not
     become a party to it.  The NPT had allowed horizontal and
     vertical proliferation of such weapons.  He hoped that at the NPT
     review conference next year, a more broad-based, comprehensive
     regime would be elaborated.  His Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi,
     had called for an improved NPT which would obligate

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