1995 Review and Extension Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

NPT/CONF.1995/27
1 May 1995
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
New York, 17 April-12 May 1995

Note by the Secretariat

The attached document, received by the Secretariat, is circulated for information.

Annex

Letter dated 18 April 1995 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of Yugoslavia to the United
Nations addressed to the Secretary-General of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

I have the honour to transmit herewith a statement of the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the occasion of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its appendix circulated as a document of the Conference.

(Signed) Dragomir DJOKIC
Ambassador
Chargé d'affaires a.i.

APPENDIX

Statement issued on 14 April 1995 by the Government of Yugoslavia

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, received with shock and dismay the denial of its right to a fully fledged participation in the work of the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Throughout the validity of this Treaty, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has demonstrated its firm commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security through general and complete disarmament, nuclear disarmament in particular, and the broadening of cooperation in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia considers that the adherence to an international treaty is the matter of the sovereign will of each State and that no one, except that State, can decide on its behalf on its status in that treaty.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia assesses the prevention of the representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from taking part in the work of the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as illegitimate and as an arrogation of the right by the depositary State to determine the status of the State parties to the said Treaty.

Proceeding from the basic principles of the international law of treaties, the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia continues to firmly maintain the position that the rights and obligations under international treaties cannot be separated without bringing into question the status of States parties to such treaties.

The unprecedented act, imposed upon the Review Conference in the case of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is not only contrary to the international law of treaties, but stands in outright contravention of the letter and spirit of the Non-Proliferation Treaty itself. This practice blurs the legal and political situation enveloping the country towards which such practice is intended to be applied. Rather than contributing to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, such an act creates ambiguous situations which are conducive to opposite behaviour.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia therefore resolutely demands from NPT depositary States, which bear special responsibility, not to allow the threatening of the substance and spirit of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to enable the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a party to the Treaty, to participate as a fully fledged member in the forthcoming Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons scheduled to begin on 17 April 1995.

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