Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
2/07/2014
In separate venues this week, a pair of senior American diplomats called for movement in the Conference on Disarmament on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, but the Geneva negotiating body appears to be as stymied as ever in its push to begin the talks. In a speech this week, Israel’s Eviatar Manor, who currently occupies the CD’s rotating presidency, said consultations with many of the CD’s 65 member countries had made it clear that “due to the divergence of views among the Member States, there was no consensus on a presidential program of work for 2014.” Manor proposed extending the mandate of an Informal Working Group into 2014 in the hopes of a work plan for future arms control talks.
Negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty have been blocked for years by Pakistan. The disarmament body operates on consensus, and Pakistan has prevented the CD from adopting an agenda to kick off negotiations due to concerns that are rooted in the large existing stocks of nuclear materials held by the U.S., Russia and other nuclear weapons states, including its regional rival, India.
Gottemoeller: CD Inaction ‘Frustrating’
In a Feb. 4 speech at the CD, acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller expressed frustration that the CD remains stalemated. “It has been frustrating to watch the [Conference on Disarmament] remain deadlocked over this issue, but negotiation of an FMCT is an essential prerequisite for global nuclear disarmament,” she said, adding: “The United States will continue to urge negotiation of an FMCT in this body, convinced that FMCT negotiations at the CD will provide each member state the ability not only to protect, but also to enhance its national security.”
Gottemoeller said the U.S. supports the renewal of the Informal Working Group. “At the same time, we believe that CD member states should foster substantive discussions aimed at future progress, with a view to promoting the prospects for work on issues ripe for negotiation, above all, an FMCT,” she said.
At Nomination Hearing, Wood Says FMCT a Priority
Speaking separately at his Senate confirmation hearing, Robert Wood, the Obama Administration’s nominee to be the U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee his priority at the CD would be to try to jumpstart talks on a FMCT. “We think that’s very important and in the national security interests of not only the United States but other countries around the world,” he said. “It’s the first step and it’s the next logical step, frankly, in the Conference on Disarmament in terms of our nonproliferation and arms control and disarmament objectives.”
Despite the years of inaction at the CD, Wood suggested the negotiating body could still do good work. “The CD has a lot of potential. … There have been a number of agreements, significant agreements, that have been negotiated there,” he said. “And I think we can still do very, very important work there. And what I hope to do, as I said, is to try to revitalize that institution, because it does have a very important role to play for U.S. national security interests.”
