HIROSHIMA // Middle East countries were urged on Saturday to make the region free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
The call came at a meeting of the member states of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative, of which the UAE is one. The initiative was launched in 2010 to support implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“The UAE is an active member of international initiatives promoting non-proliferating efforts,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the Minister of State.
“Our non-proliferation credentials are well recognised within the international community and the UAE remains committed to the treaty and to working with our international partners to promote its full implementation.”
The 12 countries in the initiative also called for greater transparency to ensure global disarmament by nuclear-weapon states. Information about nuclear forces was of great importance to them to be able to verify nuclear disarmament, they said.
“Without transparency, Non-Proliferation Treaty states do not have complete confidence that nuclear disarmament measures have been accomplished in an irreversible manner.”
The Non-Proliferation Treaty is reviewed every five years. The next review is due next year, and a preparatory committee for the review begins meeting in New York at the end of this month.
Saturday’s meeting urged the nuclear-weapon states to use an agreed standard reporting form to report their disarmament undertakings to that committee.
They called on nuclear powers to submit “further substantive, timely and meaningful reports” on their nuclear disarmament. Their engagement in nuclear disarmament is essential, said Hamad Alkaabi, the UAE ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, “to understand their progress, to inform them of the expectations from non-nuclear weapons states and to help this process through proposals and ideas”. The initiative countries issued six new working papers, which focus on nuclear disarmament, increased transparency, de-alerting, nuclear security and a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
“The outcome document is a balanced one reflecting NPDI countries’ priorities, including addressing non-proliferation concerns and NPDI views to advance implementation of the treaty,” said Mr Alkaabi. “The next important step is to focus on the success of the next NPT Review Conference in 2015 through contributions and leadership.”
Participating countries urged nuclear powers to take responsibility and rid the world of nuclear weapons. “We made realistic and practical measures towards a world without nuclear weapons,” said the Japanese foreign minister, Fumio Kishida.
“The nuclear situation has to be watched very carefully so that it does not take a turn for the worse. The situation in Ukraine has bearings on the future activities of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation so we have to watch it carefully.”
Countries also stressed the need for a reduction of all types of nuclear weapons. “Nuclear powers should act before other powers,” said Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister. “Those who are members of the NPDI will work very hard but, at the end of the day, the engagement and a clear objective of nuclear powers are very important to stop humanitarian disasters.”
The countries also called for a treaty to ban the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, with all states possessing nuclear weapons to declare and maintain a moratorium on the production of the material for such use.
“We’re committed to remove nuclear weapons from international security but this can only happen if steps are taken by all sides,” said Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister.
“Our effort is to make sure that we engage nuclear powers to continue their talks on nuclear disarmament but we need to take it in a step-by-step approach,” he said.
“Our appeal is ... that they take their responsibility to rid the world of nuclear weapons.”
The 12 countries in the initiative are the UAE, Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey.
cmalek@thenational.ae