Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

Vicente Garrido Rebolledo
rest of the States Parties to the NPT in the exchange of equipment, materials
and scientific and technological information on the peaceful uses of
nuclear energy and such commitments are to be fully implemented.
One of the most controversial topics dealt with by the conference was
the conclusion of a treaty to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the
Middle East, the most important implication of which was renunciation by
Israel of its nuclear capability (indeed, Israel’s nuclear programme was
one of the issues over which the Arab countries clashed with the nuclear
states during and up until the end of the conference, as demonstrated by
the adoption of the resolution on the Middle East, from which any express
mention of the Israeli nuclear programme was finally omitted) (37).
Five years later, in 2000, the sixth NPT Review Conference went
one step further in specifying the commitments established in 1995 by
adopting an action plan on nuclear disarmament set out in a list of «13
practical steps» to be progressively implemented. The document, adopted
by consensus, proposed a set of measures aimed ultimately at fully
implementing article VI of the NPT: entry into force of the Test-Ban Treaty
(rejected by the US Senate in 1999) and, until then, an indefinite nuclear
moratorium; negotiations for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty; application
of the principle of irreversibility in nuclear disarmament; establishment at
the Conference on Disarmament (the only multilateral body capable of
negotiating international treaties on disarmament and armaments control,
but practically at a standstill since 1996) of a subsidiary body to deal with
nuclear disarmament; unequivocal commitment by the nuclear states to
eliminate their nuclear arsenals, including entry into force of the START II
Treaty (which was aimed at limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear arms
to 3,000-3,500 warheads and never entered into force owing to Moscow’s
denunciation of the treaty on 12 June 2002 in response to Washington’s
unilateral withdrawal from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM); and, in
addition, development of the necessary verification capabilities to ensure
compliance with the nuclear disarmament agreements(38).
The seventh NPT Review Conference ended on 27 May 2005 in a climate
of frustration and scepticism. The 153 states that took part in the
(37) Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United
States of America: draft resolution. Document NPT/CONF.1995/L.8, 10 May 1995.
(38) For the full document and an analysis of its application, see Tariq Rauf, Towards NPT
2005: An action plan for the «13 Steps» towards nuclear disarmament agreed at NPT
2000, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies,
Monterey, 2001.
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