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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