Mexico and Six Other Countries Launch Declaration on Nuclear Weapon Free World

Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden on Monday jointly launched the Declaration" Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World: The Need for a New Agenda" at the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons( NPT).

On behalf of the six other countries, Ms. Rosario Green, Minister For Foreign Affairs of Mexico, told the general debate of the 2000 NPT Review Conference which will be held here at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York from April 24 to May 19 "Our purpose in taking such an initiative was to put the nuclear agenda back on track, to give a clear perspective and underpinning through a new and clear undertaking to bring about a nuclear free world without further prevarication."

"The new agenda is a program of action sufficiently flexible to adapt to the circumstances and requirements of each successive stage in the process that leads to the achievement of a world without nuclear weapons," she said.

"It captures the elements of ongoing processes. And, in a pragmatic and realistic way it brings together successive steps for the international community to implement the obligations of the treaty," the Minister said.

"Fundamental to this initiative is the requirement for an unequivocal undertaking on the part of the five nuclear weapons states to the total elimination of their respective nuclear arsenals. Such a commitment would be new," she said.

"It would determine all future action on the part of the nuclear weapons states. It would provide a reference point to evaluate progress towards the goals of the NPT, when we again meet in 2005 to review the implementation of the Treaty. And it would signal determination to uphold disarmament imperatives," she added.

The main points of the Declaration:

-- The five nuclear-weapon states make an unequivocal undertake to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals and, in the course of the forthcoming Review period 2000- 2005, to engage in an accelerated process of negotiations and to take steps leading to nuclear disarmament to which all states parties are committed under Article VI.

-- The united States of America and the Russian Federation undertake to fully implement the Treaty on Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) and commence without further delay negotiations on START III with a view to its early conclusion.

-- The nuclear-weapon states undertake to proceed to the early integration of all five nuclear-weapons states into the process leading to the total elimination of their respective nuclear weapons.

-- The five nuclear-weapon states undertake, as early and interim steps, to adapt their nuclear policies and posture so as to preclude the use of nuclear weapons and so on.

-- States parties agree on the importance and urgency of the pursuit, extension and establishment of nuclear weapon free zones, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at, among States of the regions concerned, especially in regions of tension, such as the Middle East and South Asia, as significant contribution to a nuclear-weapon-free-world.

-- The States parties call upon the three States that operate unsafeguarded nuclear facilities and that have not yet acceded to the Treaty on NPT and that have not renounced the nuclear-weapons option to reverse clearly and urgently the pursuit of all nuclear weapons development or deployment and to refrain from any action that could undermine regional and international peace and security and the efforts of the international community towards nuclear disarmament and the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Enditem



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