NPT Review Conference Characterized As a Flop!
By Victor Comras
The 2005 NPT Review Conference at the United Nations in New York concluded May 27, 2005 with few accomplishments and even less momentum for the future. The Financial Times called it "A wasted month of nuclear negotiations."Conference President Sergio de Queiroz Duarte (Brazil) bluntly told reporters at his concluding press conference that "substantively - in terms of results and agreements - very little had been accomplished." In his view the Conference had not helped the process of Nuclear disarmament that began so hopefully in 1995 and continued in 2000. Asked if the Conference had, in fact, undermined the Treaty, he hedged that Today, we have to see the way in which the results of the Conference will impact upon the Treaty, but I dont think we can immediately decree here that they will undermine it, he said. But there clearly was, he said, a "lack of understanding and convergence among States Parties on the best ways to achieve the purposes and objectives of the Treaty."
The next review conference is scheduled to take place in 2010. That's some time away. In the interim there will be preparatory meetings and bilateral and multilateral negotiations. The IAEA will continue its work and the Security Council may well be called into action to deal with North Korea's expanding nuclear weapons program and Iran's progression in that direction. Eyes will now turn to the six party talks on North Korea and on the EU attempts to bring Iran in line. Neither looks very promising at this moment. As for the terrorists, they will continue to look to see if they can find and acquire some of the missing Russian nuclear material. The world is certainly no safer because 188 countries sat down in New York for a month and failed to re-enforce non-proliferation. (See my earlier blog).
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It appears that my prediction was correct: You cannot put 188 people with more than 188 agendas in a room and come up with a solution for the good of the whole, especially when the good is fighting the evil that is prevelant throughout the group. [Read More]
