16 February 2000
(Preparations under way for NPT Review Conference) (880) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent New York -- Despite recent setbacks, the United States intends to remain a leader in pressing for more nuclear arms control and is looking forward to a balanced Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in April that affirms the importance of the treaty for all countries around the world, John Holum, U.S. senior adviser for arms control and international security, said February 16. Holum called the NPT Review Conference, which will be held at United Nations headquarters beginning April 24, "an extremely important international event." The review is the first since the 1995 NPT conference decided that the treaty should become permanent with periodic reviews held every five years. The United States has been underscoring three main points in the NPT review preparation sessions, he said. "One is that arms control remains vital as a security instrument for all countries in the world," Holum said. "Second, the United States intends to continue leading this effort despite setbacks, and we consider ourselves part of the international consensus in favor of further steep reductions in nuclear arms. "Third: Although the pace of disarmament will be an important issue to consider in the context of the review conference, it is also vitally important that we all understand that the main reason the NPT was made permanent in 1995, and the main reason it remains so important now, is that it is a security instrument for all of its members," he said. Acceptance of the NPT "is not a favor by the non-nuclear weapon states to the nuclear weapon states," Holum said. The treaty "is an instrument by which the non-nuclear weapon states can avoid the costs and dangers of their own participation in a nuclear arms race, confident in the knowledge that their neighbors and rivals also are not pursuing nuclear weapons," he said. "It would be self-defeating for countries to jeopardize either their own relationship with the NPT or the NPT itself because they are dissatisfied with the pace of disarmament, because the treaty is valuable to them," he said. The 187 nations that have ratified the NPT "did not do so on the grounds that they liked what the United States and the other nuclear weapon states were doing. They did it because they saw a security value for themselves," Holum said. But he added that for the conference to be "balanced" there must also be discussions on the benefits of the treaty, such as strengthened safeguards and the benefits of peaceful uses of atomic energy in such areas as health and agriculture. The United States also wants any discussion about the countries that are not members of the NPT regime to focus on all four countries -- Cuba, Israel, India, and Pakistan -- and not become a Middle East debate on Israel, he said. "It is striking that this is the most widely accepted nonproliferation arms control agreement in the history of the world. There are 187 countries that are members; only four remain outside. All four deserve a coaxing," he said. "The most serious threats in the most recent past have been in South Asia, where India and Pakistan have tested nuclear devices," Holum noted. In a press conference at the Department of State's Foreign Press Center, Holum stressed that the strategic arms reduction process has continued on the ground despite the fact that the START II Treaty has yet to be ratified by Russia. "Weapons are continuing to be dismantled at a rate in the United States of about 100 a month -- taken apart and forever removed from our strategic arsenal," he said. "Similarly in the former Soviet Union the number of warheads are coming down. Both countries are ahead of schedule," he noted. Holum also emphasized that even though the U.S. Senate did not ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1999, "President Clinton has made clear that the United States will continue the effort to ratify the treaty." "In the meantime, we will not conduct any more nuclear tests and (will) continue to support the CTBT organization," Holum said. "We will continue to encourage other countries to ratify the treaty so it can come into force at the earliest possible date." Holum also confirmed reports that the United States has presented to Russia its ideas on a START III treaty and amendments to the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty. "The numbers we have been talking about for START III are consistent with the agreement of the two presidents in Helsinki -- that is, a range of 2,000-2,500 warheads," he said. On the ABM, the U.S. "provided ideas and some details that essentially come down to a proposal to adjust the treaty only so much as to allow for the very limited national defense...taking the 100 interceptors that are already allowed by the treaty for regional defense and saying those 100 interceptors can be based and configured in such a way as to provide limited coverage for the entire national territory," Holum said. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web Site: usinfo.state.gov)