Sunday, June 13, 2010

NPT Review Conference - 2010


The May 31st blog entry 'Wonderland II' referenced the NPT consensus final document agreed to at the end of the month-long NPT Review Conference... Reactions have ranged from "a win for multilateralism", to a win for Iran, "a modest achievement", "progress", "an incremental success", etc. (see links below).

The final document (see here), is preceded by a 122-paragraph on the review of the NPT process submitted by the president of the Review Conference, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan. It (the consensus document) consists of four sections with associated recommendations for follow-on actions, viz:

I. Nuclear Disarmament:

A. Principles and Objectives - Actions 1-2
B. Disarmament of Nuclear Weapons - Actions 3-6
C. Security Assurances - Actions 7-9
D. Nuclear Testing - Actions 10-14
E. Fissile Materials - Actions 15-18
F. Other Measures - Actions 19-22


II. Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Actions: 23-46

III. Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy: Actions: 47-63

IV. The Middle East, particularly implementation of the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East

The Middle East section has ten points (as opposed to "actions"), and "... reaffirms...; takes note...; regrets that...; recalls...; emphasizes..." etc., etc. However, the U.S., after agreeing to the consensus version still took pains to complain about this section and let it be known that it would not do much to support the proposed 2012 Conference.

Bottom line: the final document is a reasonably successful outcome given that it has to be accepted unanimously. Unfortunately, by picking and choosing the parts that it likes the U.S. has set a very bad example, encouraging others to do the same and thereby vitiating the final document...

NPT on Debategraph
Two Cheers for Multilateralism
Progress on Nukes at the UN?
Iran narrowly wins UN nuclear battle
NPT RevCon ends with a consensus Final Document
A Surprising Consensus on Nuclear Nonproliferation
Understanding the 2010 NPT Review Conference
Post-NPT RevCon Review of the Goal for a NWFZ in the Middle East …And why this goal is so important

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