Conferences and Meetings

The Challenges that Face the Non Proliferation Treaty

• Print
• Email

The Challenges that Face the Non Proliferation Treaty

Afro Asian peoples' Solidarity Organization in cooperation with School of Global Affairs and Public Policy AUC hold a lecture on 26 April 2010 at the Oriental Hall in AUC  on "The Challenges that Face the Non Proliferation Treaty ".

          Mr Nouri Abdul Razzak the Secretary - General of AAPSO made the opening speech, and Ambassador Nabil Fahmy - the Dean of  School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC was the main speaker, then Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker the Chairman of Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs spoke, Dr Mohamed Abdul Salam - the Director of the Security Regional Programme in Al Ahram Strategic and Political Studies and Dr. Mostafa Al Faky - the Chairman of the Foreign Relations in the People's Assembly.

This lecture covered all the challenges that face the NPT and concentrated on the importance of the renewal of the initiative of Evacuation of the Middle East from the Nuclear Weapons .

The attendance of this lecture was vast and the Hall was full of important figures who are concerned with this issue .

Speech by: Mr. Nouri Abdul-Razzak Hussain, Secretary General of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity  Organization (AAPSO)
 

His Excellency Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, the Dean of AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It gives me pleasure, in the name of the Permanent Secretariat of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO), to extend my deep thanks and gratitude for your kindly acceptance of our initiative to hold this joint meeting between the AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and us which is dedicated to the discussion of the global challenges facing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Our meeting is held on the occasion of the Eighth NPT Review Conference which is due to be held in New York from May 3rd to May 28th, 2010, and upon your approval to be the major speaker in that meeting.

In this regard, I should express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the distinguished misters who have accepted our invitation to come and participate in that meeting, and they are all prominent figures in this field. I extend my special thanks to HE Ambassador Muhammad Ibrahim Shaker, the Chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA), and the chairman of the Third NPT Review Conference held in 1985, HE Ambassador Dr. Mustafa El-Fiqi, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the People’s Assembly, and the prominent national intellectual Dr. Muhammad Abdel Salam, the Head of the Regional Security Programme at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS).

After forty years since making the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United Nations is preparing for convening the Eighth NPT Review Conference. Certainly, this meeting is of great importance as this NPT is the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and upon which all international efforts rely for nuclear disarmament. It may also provide the most globally successful monitoring system on nuclear weapons.

The NPT is a multilateral agreement that was opened for signature on the 1st of July 1968 for reducing the spread of nuclear weapons that threaten the world peace and the future of humanity. 189 states have so far signed the treaty, which came into force on March 5th, 1970 for a limited duration of twenty five years extended in 1995 indefinitely.

Notably, the non-proliferation system is based upon three main pillars:

1. The non-proliferation,

2. The nuclear disarmament, and

3. The peaceful use of the nuclear energy.

 

In the light of working in accordance with these three pillars, there are ongoing challenges facing the non-proliferation system and underlying the basic principles of the Treaty. Among these challenges are:

The spread of nuclear weapons technologies through a state that legitimizes its nuclear capabilities by means of imposing the policy of fait accompli as is the case with Israel.

The withdrawal from the NPT

The non-compliance with the NPT terms

Making improvements on nuclear weapons by some states that possess these weapons

 

Two states have entered into the Treaty since the 2000 Review Conference, Cuba was one of them as it acceded to the Treaty in 2002. The international community has welcomed the accession of the two states as it represents an important development that contributes to the reinforcement of the non-proliferation system. And whereas Israel, India and Pakistan chose not to accede to the Treaty, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea declared its withdrawal from the NPT in 2002.

The September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. played a role in drawing the whole world’s attention to the danger of other terrorist acts in the future in which weapons of mass destruction may be used. The UN Security Council addressed this challenge by issuing resolution No. 1540 of 2004, which called upon all states to adopt and enforce effective laws that prohibit any non-State actor to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. It further called upon all states to take effective measures to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of these weapons.

It can be said that since the Review Conference of 2000, much progress has been achieved towards finding a nuclear-free zone in Central Asia as the five Central Asian countries declared that they managed to reach an agreement in this respect in conformity with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

However, the resolution pertaining to freeing the Middle East from the weapons of mass destruction is still facing obstacles and hardships due to the international protection provided for the Israeli nuclear arsenal, the ambiguity of its position and the double standards that are regarded as one of the most important challenges facing the NPT. And despite the fact that more countries have been complying with the Treaty, there is a prevailing feeling that the enforcement of the NPT has, to some extent,  declined compared to what was expected, especially that there are fears regarding the risks of the proliferation and transfer of the nuclear weapons from the states to the individuals and terrorist organizations. Therefore, it becomes necessary to demand the implementation of article 6 of the Treaty which states specifying timetables for dismantling the nuclear weapons, the article which has not yet been enforced by some states that are still developing their nuclear arsenal. These states are also contributing to the nuclear proliferation through providing military nuclear technologies to NPT non-signatory states, in particular Israel. Moreover, many developments occurred after the year 2000 resulting in several nuclear states’ violations of the NPT, a decline of the NPT implementation. Add to that the threats made by some nuclear states to use nuclear weapons against other states that do not possess the same weapon. This is in addition to the production of more highly enriched plutonium and uranium and the lack of transparency of the nuclear programmes of those states.

The nuclear agreement concluded between India and the U.S. represents another breach of the NPT. The United States, which supposedly fights the nuclear proliferation, has amended some of its laws that stood as a stumbling block in the way of that agreement. Indeed, this is a clear example of subjecting the terms of the Treaty to the geopolitical interests.

It is worth mentioning that the Iranian nuclear file is expected to face heated discussions during the forthcoming Review Conference. It was clear in the recent Washington Summit how this problem occupied a large part of the discussions of the summit, for which President Obama had called to prevent the occurrence of nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorist elements. Besides, failing to reach a solution for the Iranian nuclear issue and the necessity of delegating the issue to the IAEA will make the issue more complicated and difficult to be resolved.

The Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) has constantly stood by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and is still backing up all international efforts aiming at nuclear disarmament, relieving the international tension and the transparent and honest enforcement of the NPT terms. In fact we see positive signs in this respect for reducing and defusing the international tension, at the top of which comes the recent START agreement concluded during the U.S. Russian summit held in Prague with the objective of  reducing the ceiling of nuclear warheads. This is in addition to some relief that has occurred in the Korean and Iranian positions.

Hence, AAPSO, in cooperation with the AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, mobilizes all its efforts and energies for activating, reinforcing, furthering and achieving the universality of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and reaching a nuclear-free world by means of the full implementation of the international Treaty.