UNITED STATES, RUSSIAN FEDERATION URGED TO CONTINUE NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT EFFORTS, IN DRAFT RESOLUTION APPROVED BY FIRST COMMITTEE
Press Release
GA/DIS/3133
UNITED STATES, RUSSIAN FEDERATION URGED TO CONTINUE NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT EFFORTS, IN DRAFT RESOLUTION APPROVED BY FIRST COMMITTEE
19981112The General Assembly would urge the Russian Federation and the United States to continue their efforts to reduce their nuclear weapons on the basis of existing agreements in order to contribute to the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons, according to one of two draft resolutions approved this morning in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).
By further terms of the text, the Assembly would welcome the entry into force of the 1991 Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) and the signing by the Russian Federation and the United States of the Treaty on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) in January 1993, and urge the parties to bring that Treaty into force at the earliest possible date. The draft was approved by a recorded vote of 136 in favour to none against, with 8 abstentions (Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania). (For details of the vote, see Annex).
By the terms of draft on the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, approved without a vote, the Assembly would reaffirm its support for the promotion of regional and subregional confidence- building measures in order to ease tensions and conflicts in Central Africa, and to further peace, stability and sustainable development there. The Assembly would also request the Secretary-General to provide the necessary support to the operation of the newly established early warning mechanism. It would also request him and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the necessary support for the creation of a Central African centre for human rights and democracy.
Following action on those drafts, the Committee suspended for informal consultations on its organization of work. When it reconvened, the Chairman announced that when the Committee met in the afternoon to take up the draft resolution on nuclear testing (document A/C.1/53/L.22), general statements would first be permitted on the nuclear weapons category of draft resolutions, limited to one statement per delegation at five minutes in length. After that,
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delegations could make statements on the draft resolution, in particular. Amendments to the draft text would then be introduced in chronological order, followed by responses to the amendments and action on them. The Committee would then take action on the draft as a whole.
Statements were made by the representatives of South Africa, United States, China, United Kingdom, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, Algeria, Viet Nam, Syria, Mexico and Jordan.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to take action on the draft resolution on nuclear testing and its amendments.
Committee Work Programme
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to take action on disarmament and security-related draft resolutions. It had before it draft texts on bilateral nuclear arms control and the United Nations standing advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa.
By the terms of a draft resolution on the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (document A/C.1/53/L.4/Rev.1) the Assembly would reaffirm its support for the promotion of regional and subregional confidence-building measures in order to ease tensions and conflicts in the subregion, and to further peace, stability and sustainable development in Central Africa. It would also reaffirm its support for the 1992 programme of work of the Standing Advisory Committee.
By further terms, the Assembly would welcome the decision of the countries members of the Committee to convene a summit meeting of heads of State and Government with a view to establishing a Higher Council for the promotion of peace, the prevention, management and settlement of political crises and armed conflicts in Central Africa and a subregional parliament there.
The Assembly would also welcome with satisfaction the establishment of an early warning mechanism in Central Africa, which would contribute towards preventing the outbreak of future arms conflicts and serve as a technical body through which member countries would carry out the Committee's programme of work. The Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights would be requested to support the establishment of a subregional centre for human rights and democracy in Central Africa.
The draft resolution is sponsored by Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon (on behalf of the States members of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee in Security Questions in Central Africa), Mali and Togo.
By terms of the draft resolution on bilateral nuclear arms control (document A/C.1/53/L.49/Rev.1) the Assembly would urge the Russian Federation and the United States to continue in their efforts to reduce their nuclear weapons on the basis of existing agreements and to continue to give those efforts the highest priority in order to contribute to the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons.
The Assembly would welcome the entry into force of the 1991 Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) and the signing of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) in
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January 1993, and it would urge the parties to bring that Treaty into force at the earliest possible date.
It would express its satisfaction at the continuing implementation of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, in particular at the completion, by the parties, of the destruction of all their declared missiles subject to elimination under the Treaty.
The Assembly would also welcome the initiative signed by Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton on 2 September 1998 to exchange information on the ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles derived from each side's missile launch warning system, including the possible establishment of a centre for the exchange of missile launch data operated by Russia and the United States and separate from their respective national centres. It would take note of their agreement to examine bilaterally the possibility of establishing a multilateral ballistic missile and space launch vehicle pre-launch notification regime, in which other States could voluntarily participate.
It would encourage Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States to continue their cooperative efforts aimed at eliminating strategic offensive arms on the basis of existing agreements and would welcome the contributions of other States to such cooperation as well. It would welcome the participation of Kazakhstan and Ukraine as non-nuclear-weapon States in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The draft resolution is sponsored by Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.
Action on texts
The Committee first took up the draft text on bilateral nuclear arms control (document A/C.1/53/L.49/Rev.1).
Speaking prior to action on the draft, the representative of South Africa, said that he had not been informed of the outcome of discussions between the United States and the Russian Federation regarding the revision of the draft. Although he had not seen the kind of language he had expected with regard to the revised text, he would undertake no further scrutiny of the language of the draft. In a gesture of flexibility, he would no longer object to action on the draft.
The representative of the United States, speaking also on behalf of the Russian Federation and the co-sponsors of the draft, formally introduced the
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revised draft resolution on bilateral nuclear arms control (document A/C.1/53/L.49/Rev.1). In explanation of the changes that had been made to the original text, he pointed out that in operative paragraph 8, they had added the words "takes note of the initiative" before the last part of the paragraph, which dealt with the possibility of establishing a multilateral pre-launch notification regime. Since that section mentioned possible actions by countries other than the original co-sponsors, some delegations had preferred a more neutral reference. His delegation had attempted to satisfy that in the revised text.
Compared to last year's resolution on the subject, the co-sponsors of this year's draft had removed the reference to nuclear weapons in operative paragraph 6 of the revised text, he said. As was noted in operative paragraph 5, those words were deleted in consideration of the fact that nuclear weapons had been completely removed from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The concept of eliminating nuclear weapons found a place in operative paragraph 11. However, co-sponsors of the draft had no intention of retreating on commitments they had made. The co-sponsors hoped that the changes would enable the draft to receive the broadest possible support.
The Committee then adopted the draft text on bilateral nuclear arms control (A/C.1/53/L.49/Rev.1) by a recorded vote of 136 in favour to none against, with 8 abstentions (Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and United Republic of Tanzania). (For details of the vote, see Annex.)
In explanation of vote after the vote, the representative of China said his delegation had voted in favour of the draft, due to the fact that his country had always attached a great importance to nuclear disarmament between the United States and the Russian Federation. In view of the fact that they were the two biggest nuclear-weapon States, nuclear arms control between them had a large impact on international peace and security. His country hoped that they would continue to make efforts to advance the goal of nuclear disarmament with the START process.
He also wished to emphasize that the process of bilateral nuclear arms control should ensure that nuclear weapons affected in any bilateral agreement between the two biggest nuclear Powers should be destroyed. The draft had made an emphatic reference to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and he hoped that the relevant countries would abide by the provisions of that Treaty, in order to avoid disrupting the global strategic equilibrium.
He concluded by pointing out that operative paragraph 8 of the draft made mention of the possibility of establishing a multilateral ballistic missile and space launch vehicle pre-launch notification regime. Such a development was beyond the purview of the draft.
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The representative of the United Kingdom said his delegation strongly supported the draft resolution and the nuclear disarmament steps already taken by the United States, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. His country would ensure its own nuclear weapons would be included in any multilateral nuclear disarmament forum that evolved.
His country had also taken some unilateral nuclear disarmament steps, he said. For instance, in addition to its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), his Government had made a significant reduction in operational warheads, including those carried by submarines. It had also reduced its production of fissile material for weapon purposes, among other initiatives. He hoped there were no doubts in the minds of Committee members that the steps taken by his country had been substantial, relative to the nuclear disarmament process.
The representative of Iran, in explanation of his decision to abstain in the voting, said he welcomed unilateral, bilateral or multilateral initiatives on nuclear disarmament. With regard to the draft text, however, it was important to underline that, while the overwhelming majority of the members of the international community insisted on participating in the nuclear disarmament process, some nuclear-weapon States maintained that the process was best left to the bilateral track. The nuclear threat was real and the very existence of nuclear weapons threatened the survival of mankind. Therefore, nuclear disarmament should not be left to the bilateral forum.
The representative of Cuba said the draft resolution had again failed to take the main concerns of others into account. It had to be acknowledged that the nuclear Powers had made tremendous progress regarding the disarmament process. However, in the absence of a practical approach, as was evident in the draft, it was not going to be possible to make any real progress towards the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The bilateral and multilateral tracks of the nuclear disarmament process must be complementary and that was not reflected in the draft. For that reason, he had abstained in the voting.
The representative of Pakistan said he appreciated the efforts of the leading nuclear-weapon States to make progress in nuclear disarmament. Still, he did not support the draft for a number of reasons. First, the draft expressed appreciation for the indefinite extension of the NPT. That extension, however, had been construed by some of the nuclear-weapon States concerned as the right for the indefinite retention of nuclear weapons, which was an unjustified interpretation.
He noted that the draft made no reference to the goal of the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. One of its operative paragraphs mentioned a joint statement by the United States and the Russian Federation on the Anti- Ballistic-Missile Treaty. He had some reservations about their interpretation of the Treaty, which seemed to make an allowance for the installation of
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theatre nuclear weapons, which were highly destabilizing for international peace and security.
Furthermore, he said that the draft had welcomed significant reductions in nuclear weapons, but ignored the fact that those reductions were made from rather high numbers and stockpiles. In that context, what would be retained after START II would still be higher than the number of nuclear weapons in existence at the time of the Cuban missile crisis -- when the United States and the Soviet Union reached the brink of a nuclear war in 1962, as the cold war escalated. Further, the draft did not recognize the multilateral nuclear disarmament process in the Conference on Disarmament, which should be central. For all those reasons, he had abstained in the voting.
The Committee next took up the draft resolution on the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (document A/C.1/53/L.4/Rev.1).
In a correction, read out by the Committee Secretary -- Cameroon, not Gabon -- was sponsoring the text on behalf of the States Members of the Committee which were also members of the Economic Community of Central African States. In addition, a programme budge implication for the text had been submitted by the Secretary-General (document A/C.1/53/L.63).
The representative of Algeria said that the draft had traditionally been adopted by consensus and had not presented any major difficulties in previous sessions. Certain new elements were introduced into the text for the first time this year, which should have been taken up in other bodies. The eleventh preambular paragraph recalled the decision of the Standing Advisory Committee to establish a subregional centre for human rights and democracy in Central Africa. Operative paragraph 8 requested the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to support the centre's establishment.
He said that the "humanization" of such measures would indeed contribute to peace and stability on the African continent and, out of solidarity with the countries of Central Africa, he had joined the consensus. He hoped, however, the draft's co-sponsors would next year return to language that was more in keeping with the disarmament and security concerns of the First Committee.
Those two elements should be taken up in other bodies, where his delegation would be happy to support them, he said. Thus, if a recorded vote had been requested, he would have abstained on those two paragraphs. While he had joined the consensus, he would make it clear that his delegation totally dissociated itself from those two paragraphs.
The draft resolution on the Standing Advisory Committee on security questions in Central Africa (A/C.1/53/L.4/Rev.1) was approved without a vote.
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The representative of Viet Nam, speaking in explanation of vote, said his delegation supported the main thrust of the draft just approved and had, therefore, joined consensus. Moreover, it had supported efforts made by the countries in the region to enhance peace and security and promote disarmament, according to the region's specific characteristics. Effective confidence- building measures, such as those outlined in the text, would contribute to regional stability and international security. He supported the draft's emphasis of the role of the Standing Advisory Committee.
He said that while he supported the general objective of the draft, the new element contained in the last preambular paragraph and in operative paragraph 2, on the proposed establishment of a subregional human rights and democracy centre, was a new element, which was not in the purview of the Committee. Thus, Viet Nam's approval of the draft should not imply a wish to set a precedent in the Committee to deal with such issues. It would, therefore, dissociate itself from those two paragraphs, while re-emphasizing support for efforts made by those countries to promote regional peace, stability and security.
The representative of Cuba said his delegation had joined consensus, because it was appropriate to demonstrate clear support for the activities of the Standing Advisory Committee. At the same time, he also wished to record his reservation to the eleventh preambular paragraph and operative paragraph 8 of the text, which were completely out of context in the draft. Although he had not doubt about the good intentions of the draft's co-sponsors, the subjects of those two paragraphs were rightly being considered in other committees.
(annex follows)
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First Committee Press Release GA/DIS/3133 28th Meeting (AM) 12 November 1998
ANNEX
Vote on Bilateral Nuclear Arms Negotiations
The draft resolution on bilateral nuclear arms negotiations and nuclear disarmament (document A/C.1/53/L.49/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 136 in favour to none against, with 8 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Against: None.
Abstain: Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania.
Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Belize, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hondouras, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, South Africa, Suriname, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Vanuatu.
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