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NPT
News:
New
NATO nuclear weapons doctrine threatens 'fragile' Non-Proliferation
Treaty, warns Greenpeace
3
May 2000
NEW YORK --
A new NATO nuclear strategy paper proposed for adoption on May
9 would wreck negotiations at the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
talks in New York by expanding the role of nuclear weapons in
NATO.
press release
Greenpeace
Accuses Nuclear Weapons States of a lame Attempt to Excuse the
Inexcusable
1
May 2000
NEW YORK -- Greenpeace today warned that the five Nuclear Weapons
States have decided to fiddle while the world may burn. Hopes
of a positive outcome at the 2000 Review meeting of the Nuclear
Non Proliferation Treaty may be all but dashed by a statement
from the U.S., China, France, Russia, and the U.K. about their
progress.
press
release
Money
Blown On Nuclear Weapons Better Spent on Sustainable Development
24
April 2000
NEW YORK -- Greenpeace today demanded that the United Nations
bring down 'mental walls' separating two meetings taking place
at the same time at the UN headquarters where, in one room, expenditure
on nuclear weapons is maintained, and in another, the lack of
investment on sustainable development is regretted.
press
release
Read the Greenpeace paper on NPT and CSD
(pdf) 'Hiroshima, Rio, Seattle, New York'
Russia's Test Ban Ratification Turns The Heat On The US To
Do Likewise
21
April 2000
MOSCOW
-– The United States and China must immediately follow the
lead of the Russian Duma which today ratified the 1996 Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, international environmental
organisation Greenpeace said today in welcoming the Russian initiative.
press release
NPT
Background:
Briefing
Papers
Greenpeace's
Anti-nuclear Campaigns
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Greenpeace Accuses Nuclear
Weapons States of a Lame Attempt to Excuse the Inexcusable
NEW YORK, May 1,
2000—Greenpeace today warned that the five Nuclear Weapons States have
decided to fiddle while the world may burn. Hopes of a positive outcome
at the 2000 Review meeting of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty may
be all but dashed by a statement from the U.S., China, France, Russia,
and the U.K. about their progress.
The joint statement
is an attempt to alleviate the concerns expressed by Non-Nuclear Weapons
States (NNWS), but instead heightens concern by showing the NWS action
on disarmament will be limited to platitudes. Greenpeace termed the
statement an empty apologia and called for immediate action to reduce
and eliminate weapons stockpiles.
“This is a lame
attempt to excuse the inexcusable. The NWS has failed to take meaningful
action on disarmament”, said William Peden, Greenpeace Disarmament Campaigner
in New York. “What is needed now is action, not more words."
Under the 1970
Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the five weapons States are
bound by Article VI to pursue meaningful steps towards nuclear disarmament.
In return, the non-weapons States agree to forego nuclear weapons. However,
in the intervening three decades, the weapons States have massively
increased their arsenals.
While the end of
the Cold War saw some progress on stockpile reductions between the U.S.
and Russia, more than 30,000 nuclear weapons remain in existence, thousands
of which are on hair- triggeralert. The five nuclear weapon States are
expected to formally release the joint statement to the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Review Conference underway at UN Headquarters at 4.30 PM EDT today.
In the statement, the weapons States fail to meet the 182 non- weapons
States’ requirement that the weapons States eliminate their nuclear
weapons as required by the Treaty.
Greenpeace called
on the NWS to immediately agree a program of action on disarmament.
This includes:
- Cancel U.S.
plans for National Missile Defense (Star Wars);
- The U.S. and
China should ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT);
- Complete negotiations
on deeper nuclear reductions - Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START
3);
- Take all nuclear
weapons off alert; and
- Halt all new
nuclear warhead development;
“Ten years after the
end of the Cold War,”Peden said, “the nuclear club maintains its refusal
to disarm. Their actions not only weaken the NPT and the entire international
arms control regime, but ensure that the world continues to live with
the constant threat of a nuclear holocaust." |
