Bangkok Summit Called to Pressure China on Nuke Tests

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase (Green2:Green2:Gnl:Main)
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               GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>>  GREENPEACE CALLS ON BANGKOK SUMMIT TO PRESSURE CHINA 
TO END NUCLEAR TESTS 
 
LONDON, 28 February 1996 (GP) Greenpeace strongly urged world
leaders attending Friday's EU-Asia summit in Bangkok to use
their influence to force China to stop nuclear weapons testing
and to agree to a complete ban on all future nuclear weapons
tests.  
 
Greenpeace's Josh Handler said that China is now the only
nuclear weapons states with an active testing programme and
its defiance of world-wide opposition to testing is
jeopardising talks in Geneva to achieve a nuclear test ban
treaty by June.
 
"China is on the verge of carrying out more nuclear weapons
tests and is also blocking agreement on a complete test ban. 
In doing so China is taking on the mantle of pariah nuclear
weapons state from France," Handler said. "All of the world's
leaders sitting around the table in Bangkok with the exception
of China are committed to a total ban on all nuclear tests.
Leaders at this week's summit must bring China on board if the
world is to get the test ban it has so strongly demanded."
 
Greenpeace offices throughout Europe and in Japan have written
or met with their heads of state impressing on them the
urgency of the situation and asking them to seek a declaration
from the Bangkok summit showing the commitment of all
participants to a true zero-yield Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty (CTBT).
 
Nuclear weapons testing is on the agenda of the two day
Bangkok summit at the same time that international talks at
the U.N. in Geneva to ban all nuclear tests are reaching a
critical stage.  China is blocking progress by objecting to an
agreement banning all nuclear tests - known as the "zero
option".  China alone is insisting on the right to conduct so-
called "peaceful" nuclear explosions.
 
CTBT talks thrown into the limelight last year when
international public protests against French nuclear testing
in the South Pacific forced France, the US, and the UK to
propose the "zero option" banning all nuclear tests no matter
how small and for whatever purpose.  
 
China's insistence on continuing its current testing program
and on maintaining the right to conduct the so called
"peaceful" nuclear explosions presents a major obstacle to
agreement.  Substantial agreement must be reached by June if a
test ban is to be signed this year.
 
In May 1995 China, along with other nuclear weapons states,
agreed at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review

and Extension Conference to work towards nuclear disarmament
and to complete a CTBT conference no later than 1996.  A test
ban is widely seen as a key first step towards achieving this
goal.  By holding up the test ban talks, China is jeopardising
the CTBT and progress on the disarmament steps which need to
follow it.
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Contact:
Jean McSorely, Greenpeace Australia: +612-211-4066
Josh Handler, Greenpeace USA: +1202-319-2516 
Blair Palese, Greenpeace Communications: +44171-833-0600
Janet Convery (Friday only): +44(0)5852-32467 or
+44181-341-3299.

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