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22 February 2007

On February 22, Dr. Kim Howells, Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, spoke to the Conference on Disarmament (CD), focusing on the UK's recently published government White Paper on renewing its Trident nuclear submarines. Without a decision to renew, the weapons will essentially expire, and the UK would become the first nuclear weapon state to disarm. Minister Howells repeatedly stated that the UK still needs nuclear arms as a deterrent, explaining that because nuclear weapons are "uniquely dangerous", it is clear that "only the threat of retaliation in kind can deter attempts to blackmail us with nuclear weapons." In a world without unconditional and legally-binding assurances to non-nuclear weapon states that nuclear weapons will not be used against them, this kind of logic sends a clear message to those that feel threatened by nuclear weapons. 

Nuclear Deterrent
Minister Howells qualified the UK's expressed desire to maintain a nuclear deterrent, saying, "This does not mean that we are taking an irreversible decision that commits us irrevocably to possessing nuclear weapons in 40 or 50 years' time... It does mean, however, that the UK needs to ensure that we have the capability in 17 years' time to retain an submarine based deterrent; and that, on present evidence, we have to assume that we will need to do so." Minister Howells explained that the current international environment is not safe enough for the UK to unilaterally renounce their nuclear weapons, even though South Africa courageously and safely decided to abandon producing and stocking nuclear weapons in 1994, and 183 countries world-wide have been living without nuclear weapons, many even without a nuclear umbrella. 

Nuclear Disarmament Contributions
Minister Howells also reported the UK's nuclear disarmament contributions. He said that "since the end of the Cold War, the explosive power of UK nuclear weapons will now have been reduced by 75%. UK nuclear weapons account for less than 1 % of the global inventory." The UK has also decided to reduce its stockpile of available warheads by a further 20 %, to less than 160, to meet their duty under Article VI of the NPT. In terms of the effect the UK's potential renewal of its nuclear weapons system will have on the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, Minister Howells hid behind the states with the most nuclear weapons. He said that it was clear to the UK that "considerable bilateral progress would have to be made in reducing the large nuclear arsenals before it will be helpful and useful to include the small fraction of the global stockpile that belongs to us." On the contrary, the UK could make history by being the first nuclear weapon state to eliminate its nuclear arsenal, and considerably bolster the world's confidence in the the nuclear weapon states' Article VI promise to disarm. 

The UK government expressed its intention to renew its Trident nuclear submarine system in a White Paper published in December, 2006, even though 59 % of people in UK oppose renewing the system (according to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) because it means developing more nuclear weapons. There is even a year-long campaign of sustained civil resistence to the weapons. 

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Dr. Howells said the UK would be working towards an atmosphere of "positive engagement and tolerance" for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee in Vienna, saying governments should be "inclusive of others' views, discussing [their] differences openly and trying to find ways to resolve them-not using them as an excuse for progress." 

Arms Trade Treaty
The Minister also urged governments to respond to the Secretary-General's request for views on an Arms Trade Treaty by the April deadline, so that the Treaty would be "truly representative of the needs of all countries" and therefore be broadly supported and properly implemented.

The next formal plenary meeting will be held on 27th of February, at 10:00.

20 February
Ambassador Juan Antonio March (Spain) presided over the first plenary session of his presidency of the the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on 20 February 2007. The CD discussed "new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons; radiological weapons" (Agenda item 5) and a "comprehensive program of disarmament" (Agenda Item 6). Germany took the floor twice on behalf of the EU, addressing each agenda item. In summarizing its positions, Turkey gave information on the informal discussions, including information on Norway's nuclear disarmament compilation paper of issues that require more attention during the CD's second session. In his opening statement, Ambassador March outlined the schedule for upcoming informal sessions under his presidency, which have not changed and are still available here: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/cd/papers07/schedule_of_agenda_items2.html.

New types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons; radiological weapons
The EU's statement on this agenda item focused on "dirty bombs", which they called "weapons of mass disruption," as opposed to weapons of mass destruction, because these weapons are more likely to cause havoc in populations than they are to cause mass casualties. The EU noted that an integral part of its security strategy is to "enhance the security of proliferation-sensitive materials, equipment and expertise in the European Union against unauthorized access and risks of diversion through-among others-improving the control of high activity radioactive sources." The EU recommended various measures to control such such materials, as dirty bombs might be the "weapon of choice for terrorists". 

Turkey said that the debate on preventing non-state actors from acquiring WMD should be conducted "in line with the letter and spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 1540", and should avoid "granting any sort of recognition to terrorist organizations."

Comprehensive Program of Disarmament
The EU explained how it understood the "Comprehensive Program of Disarmament", an agenda item that many have seen as vague or unclear. The EU noted that the 2001 Special Coordinator for the review of the agenda said this agenda item was flexible, leading to a general understanding in the CD that any disarmament issue could be addressed under this item. The EU noted that in 1997 the Conference used this item to consider a new issue-a comprehensive global ban on anti-personnel landmines-and then elaborated the successes of, and the EU's support for, the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The Mine Ban Treaty was spurred by civil society cooperating with like-minded governments, and negotiated outside the CD because of the blocks in the CD. 

The EU then went on to discuss its support for another new issue, the proposed Arms Trade Treaty, which is also a product of civil society collaborating with like-minded governments. The EU co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution on an Arms Trade Treaty, and will "positively respond" to the Secretary-General's inquiries on the potential Treaty, as directed by the resolution.

Summary of recent proceedings
Turkey gave an overview of its positions on each of the agenda items, in some cases usefully illuminating the informal discussions, stating that Turkey's delegation "feels the need to highlight some of the key points of our contributions for the benefit of those Delegations who were not able to follow all of the meetings, as well as for the wider audience." This sort of public discussion of the closed informals is very helpful for civil society.

In particular, Turkey highlighted the work of Norway, the Coordinator for the nuclear disarmament agenda item (1), in putting together a compilation paper on the informal discussions called "Clustering of the concrete proposals for substantive issues that require more focused attention during the second part of the annual session, with a view to commencing negotiations." This compilation paper contains four sub-sections: Convention prohibiting nuclear weapons; Other legal instruments; Ad hoc committee-phased programme nuclear disarmament; and Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures. Civil society should examine this paper in-depth, as it will direct the discussions of the second session. The second session, which is yet to be scheduled in detail, will ideally allow more in-depth discussion of the most important issues. 

With regard to the nuclear disarmament compilation paper, Turkey advised a realistic assessment which would lead to "an incremental approach starting from the least common denominator." Thus, he added, "a good starting block would seem to be confidence building through increased information sharing and transparency".

Future CD Plenary Sessions
The CD will hold its next public plenary session on Thursday 22 February at 10am, when the Dr. Kim Howells MP, UK Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will speak. Spain noted that it is likely that there will be high level speakers addressing the CD the week of 12 March, because the high-level segment of the Human Rights Council will be taking place then.