Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
1/29/2016
The United Nations’ Conference on Disarmament held its first public plenary of the 2016 session this week in Geneva, Switzerland. Kim Won-soo, acting U.N. high representative for disarmament affairs, read a declaration emphasizing the urgency of reducing nuclear stockpiles from the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the year’s opening session of the multilateral arms control negotiating forum.
Members on Tuesday adopted the conference’s 2016 agenda, which includes nuclear disarmament, cessation of the nuclear arms race, prevention of nuclear war and any outer space arms race, international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon states against the use of nuclear weapons, new types of weapons of mass destruction, including radiological weapons, and transparency in armaments.
Ban’s statement highlighted the need to “prevent the expansion or further development of nuclear arsenals” and “accelerate the reduction of existing stockpiles,” and noted that the conference “has not been able to break its deadlock.” The conference has faced a stalemate since completing Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations in 1996 due to a lack of consensus on a fissile material cutoff treaty – specifically Pakistan’s withdrawal of support on a preliminary work plan.
The Conference on Disarmament, consisting of 65 member states including the United States, Russia, France, and Germany, is expected to start 2016 by establishing its schedule of activities for the session. Nigeria will be the first president for 2016, followed alphabetically by Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, and the Republic of Korea.
The conference’s primary focus, according to the U.N., involves “cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war,” and related arms control issues. Disarmament agreements such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the CTBT have been negotiated through the conference.
Ban’s statement called on states to “make the final push” for CTBT ratification and referred to the fissile material cutoff treaty as “a prerequisite for sustainable nuclear disarmament” that would also help prevent terrorists from acquiring weapon-usable material. The treaty would prohibit members from producing highly enriched uranium and plutonium, which would introduce a new restriction on countries such as India and Pakistan. Ban told conference members to urgently address the “chronic impasse” in completing the treaty, warning that “without such concrete action, this Conference risks becoming completely marginalized.”
Pakistani Ambassador Tehmina Janjua addressed the stalemate in her plenary statement: “We understand and share the frustration emanating from the lack of progress on nuclear disarmament,” but “politically motivated, discriminatory revisionism of the global nuclear order will continue to stand in the way of genuine progress.” Calling for equal security footing for all states, Janjua criticized “inequitable treaties that apply disproportionately to one or two states only.”
Janjua said certain conference members pushing a fissile material cutoff treaty do not want to include existing fissile material stocks in the accord’s negotiating mandate, a stance that neglects different fissile material stock sizes. This works against Pakistan’s security interests, she said, adding that Pakistan is willing to work toward a new negotiating mandate “that addresses the asymmetry in fissile material stockpiles.” Pakistan’s concern has primarily centered around India’s larger nuclear stockpile.
William Potter, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said by email, “I doubt very much if you will see any significant movement at the CD per se this session,” but that the Open-Ended Working Group mandated by the U.N. General Assembly “could be consequential.” The working group on multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations serves as a forum to take forward talks and cooperative action, supplementing the goals of the conference. The group, set to meet in Geneva in February, May, and August, held an organizational meeting Thursday. “Should the US decide to attend, the meetings could be quite interesting,” Potter said. On the fissile material cutoff treaty, however, he said he sees “no prospect for movement in the near term.”
The Conference on Disarmament’s 2016 session will consist of three parts, with the first extending from Jan. 25 to April 1, the second from May 16 to July 1, and the third from Aug. 2 to Sept. 16.
