On March 23, the Geneva Conference on Disarmament voted unanimously to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to negotiate a multilateral, internationally and effectively verifiable ban of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. The Ad Hoc Committee will report its results to the Conference on Disarmament before the end of the 1995 session.
The committee's mandate is based on the 1993 United Nations consensus resolution (48/75L) on cutoff, which expressed the conviction that a "nondiscriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices would be a significant contribution to nuclear non-proliferation in all its aspects." The resolution called for the negotiation of such a treaty in the most appropriate international forum and requested the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide assistance in examining verification arrangements.
The United States strongly supports a fissile material production cutoff treaty. The United States stopped producing fissile material for nuclear weapons in 1992. In 1993, President Clinton proposed to the United Nations General Assembly a multilateral agreement to halt production of high-enriched uranium and separated plutonium for nuclear explosives or outside international safeguards. In 1994, the United States and Russia signed a bilateral agreement to halt plutonium production for nuclear weapons and to shut down permanently plutonium production reactors.
A cutoff treaty could cap worldwide the amount of fissile material available for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Such a treaty would strengthen international nuclear nonproliferation standards and add a binding international commitment to existing constraints on weapons-usable material. The United States envisions that states would undertake:
-- not to assist other states in activities proscribed by the treaty; and
-- to accept International Atomic Energy Agency inspections to verify the undertakings of the treaty.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
March 1992:
United States ends reprocessing of plutonium for nuclear weapons (production of highly-enriched uranium for weapons ended in 1964).
September 1993:
President Clinton's speech to UN General Assembly proposing a multilateral agreement to halt production of high-enriched uranium and separated plutonium for nuclear explosives or outside international safeguards.
December 1993:
UN General Assembly consensus resolution (48/75L) endorsing cutoff negotiations United States begins informal bilateral consultations.
January 1994:
Conference on Disarmament appoints Ambassador Gerald Shannon (Canada) as special coordinator for cutoff. Ambassador Shannon begins consultations with CD member states on negotiations.
January 1994:
Joint statement by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin promoting earliest possible completion of a cutoff treaty.
October 1994:
Joint U.S.-People's Republic of China statement promoting earliest possible completion of a cutoff treaty.
March 1995:
CD votes unanimously to establish Ad Hoc Committee with a negotiating mandate.