DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE SEARCHES FOR AGREEMENT ON APPOINTMENT OF PANEL ON 'NEGATIVE SECURITY ASSURANCES'
Press Release
DCF/306
DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE SEARCHES FOR AGREEMENT ON APPOINTMENT OF PANEL ON 'NEGATIVE SECURITY ASSURANCES'
19970701 (Delayed in transmission; reissued as received.)GENEVA, 27 June (UN Information Service) -- The Conference on Disarmament, despite appeals from a number of developing countries, was unable to reach consensus this morning on establishment of an ad hoc committee on "negative security assurances" to non-nuclear-weapons States.
The phrase has become shorthand for efforts to negotiate an international pact under which States possessing such weapons would pledge not to use them against nations not having them.
The debate followed a breakthrough Thursday in which the Conference decided to appoint a "special coordinator" to explore the potential for negotiations on a ban on anti-personnel land mines.
That move broke, at least in part, an impasse during which the forum -- in half a year of meetings -- had been unable to agree on a course for its work.
At the start of this morning's session a representative of Myanmar, on behalf of the Group of 21 non-aligned countries, tabled a formal proposal following up a suggestion Sri Lanka had made Thursday -- that decisions be made, one at a time, on appointments of ad hoc committees on global nuclear disarmament; negative security assurances to non-nuclear-weapons States; prevention of an arms race in outer space; and transparency in armaments. In addition, the measure sought action on proposed appointments of special coordinators on the subjects of expansion of Conference membership; development of an agenda; and improved and more effective functioning of the Conference. All were contained in a proposed programme of work tabled early this month by the Group of 21.
Several speakers, including the representative of China, said the Conference could not -- and should not give the impression -- that it was concentrating on land mines alone. Non-aligned States had shown flexibility and a spirit of compromise in agreeing to the coordinator on land mines, he said, and the Conference similarly should be willing to take the security
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concerns of non-nuclear-weapons States into account. Among countries expressing support for that point of view were Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Algeria, Iran, Mexico, and Chile.
Discussion then focused on negative security assurances, with Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Office at Geneva, saying that the Conference already had conducted negotiations on the subject, had agreed on a mandate in 1992, and had established a committee in the past. The Conference should take advantage of the momentum created and at a minimum re-establish that committee, he urged.
But other countries -- among them Canada, Austria, Spain, France, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands -- said that while they agreed that the Conference should consider other topics, what those topics should be and how they should be pursued should be carefully considered over a longer period of time. They also said they needed further information on the mandates that would be given to the proposed ad hoc committees.
Mr. Akram charged at the end of the session that nuclear-weapons States "were not prepared to give up the privileges" they enjoyed through possession of the weapons and were not truly prepared to relieve other States of the threat of their use -- an assertion that was denied by the United States and France.
Adding urgency to the debate was the Conference's pending summer recess; after today, it is not scheduled to reconvene until 31 July.
The Conference will resume its plenary at 3 p.m.
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