CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT DISCUSSES NEGATIVE SECURITY ASSURANCES

The Conference on Disarmament today held a discussion on effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. It also heard a statement by Alexander Schallenberg, Federal Minister of Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria.

Mr. Schallenberg noted that the centenary of the League of Nations, celebrated this year, was an opportunity to reflect on the historic joint determination to seek peace through engagement and cooperation. Over the past 100 years, States had established multilateral fora to provide a platform for dialogue when bilateral relations were complex, and had worked tirelessly to strengthen international law as the foundation of the global multilateral order. Today, however, those achievements were being actively challenged, and respect for obligations and commitments were being put in question. The Minister firmly stated that pacta sunt servanda was the cardinal rule of international relations and it fully applied to the nuclear disarmament regime, the cornerstone of which was the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, agreed upon 50 years ago, which, the Minister stressed, aimed towards a world free of nuclear weapons. In the upcoming Review Conference, it was vital to agree on further concrete progress toward its ultimate goal.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was the last treaty negotiated in the Conference on Disarmament; 23 years on, its entry into force was still awaited. Nuclear disarmament had in practice ground to a halt and was being partially reversed. New nuclear weapons were being developed, more delivery systems were being deployed, and trillion-dollar modernization programmes aimed at keeping nuclear weapons in service for decades to come. Nuclear disarmament was famously referred to as the number one unfinished business of the international community. The underlying premise of the international disarmament efforts was the prevention of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of a nuclear explosion, which could not be contained by any border, and thus, nuclear weapons concerned all States. Highlighting the challenges of new and emerging technologies, the weaponization of artificial intelligence in particular, the Minister stressed the moral obligation of States to act before they were overrun by facts on the ground, and reiterated its full support for the immediate start of negotiations on a legally binding instrument to ensure human control over decisions of life and death. Concluding, Mr. Schallenberg recognized the current challenging times and stressed that challenges brought opportunities, and that in the current security climate, there was no time to lose.

The President of the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Duong Chi Dung of Viet Nam, introduced the participants in the thematic discussion on its agenda item four on effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons: Ambassador Peter Andreas Beerwerth of Germany, Ambassador Li Song of China, and Marc Finaud, Senior Advisor at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy,

Ambassador Peter Andreas Beerwerth of Germany recalled that in 2018, subsidiary body four had indeed agreed on commonalities, even if its report had not been officially adopted in the plenary. Those commonalities therefore should be used as a basis for future discussions on negative security assurances. The delegations, Ambassador Beerwerth noted, had acknowledged the positive effect of negative security assurances on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, agreed that negative security assurances could reinforce and strengthen other disarmament instruments, and noted that nuclear weapon free zones could be more effective with protocols to be signed by all parties.

The delegations in subsidiary body four had also emphasized that the Conference on Disarmament was the most appropriate forum to deal with negative security assurances. The effect of negative security assurances on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament was, in Germany’s view, their most potent characteristic. Many delegations had underlined the confidence building effect of negative security assurances, although the best guarantee of not being a target of nuclear weapons was their total elimination. In a broader negative security assurances context, it was agreed that nuclear doctrines and postures of States should be more closely examined in the Conference on Disarmament, similar to what had recently commenced in the P5 framework. In closing, Ambassador Beerwerth expressed hope that the Conference would be able to agree to continue this important work as part of its deliberations on core agenda items.

Ambassador Li Song of China recognized the demands of non-nuclear weapons States for negative security assurances and reiterated that providing such assurances was not a favour granted by nuclear weapon States, but a part of their non-proliferation obligations. Pending the total elimination of nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon States must pledge no first use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances and no use or threat of use against non-nuclear-weapon States and nuclear weapon free zones unconditionally. China had been appealing to the five nuclear weapon States to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in their nuclear doctrines and pledge the no-first-use of nuclear weapons. For its part, China itself had pledged no use or threat of use against non-nuclear-weapon States and nuclear weapon free zones unconditionally.

Furthermore, China had signed and ratified protocols to all nuclear weapon free zones that were opened for signature. It had consistently supported the efforts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone. Additionally, China had actively facilitated dialogue between the P5 and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including on the matter of the signature of the Protocol. The negotiation and conclusion of an internationally binding instrument on negative security assurances remained incomplete, despite the fact that many States were in its favour, the Ambassador said, adding that the Conference on Disarmament should use the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a guidance. Efforts to that end would help consolidate and strengthen the international non-proliferation regime with the Non-Proliferation Treaty as its the cornerstone, help strengthen the effectiveness of the Conference on Disarmament, as well as help advance its substantive work on the negotiation and conclusion of internationally binding legal treaties.

Marc Finaud, Senior Advisor at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, recalled the background paper he had presented in 2018 to subsidiary body four which had mapped all the existing unilateral statements of legally binding commitments made by nuclear armed States regarding assurances of non-use or non-threat of use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States. This mapping had demonstrated the diversity of positions of nuclear armed States and in particular the variety of conditions required by such States to implement their assurances. Mr. Finaud noted that the issue of negative security assurances had been on the agenda of this Conference and the whole international community for decades without real progress since the 1995 United Nations Security Council resolution that had endorsed the unilateral declarations of the five Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-nuclear-weapon States.

Today, this issue took on new urgency with the growing recognition that the risk of use of nuclear weapons had never been so high since the Cold War. Even if the international community was divided on the question of legality or legitimacy of nuclear weapons, there was no doubt that the whole world, including all nuclear-armed States, had a vital interest in preventing their use and in working together to reduce that risk. Additionally, Mr. Finaud reiterated that the most effective and radical means of eliminating the risk of use of nuclear weapons would be their total elimination; in the meantime, if all States that had verifiably renounced nuclear weapons were protected against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, this would greatly contribute to the goal of lowering the threshold of a nuclear war.

The Conference then heard statements from delegations on the issue of negative security assurances. Taking the floor were France, Pakistan, Egypt, Netherlands, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Indonesia, India, Republic of Korea, Australia, Ukraine, Islamic Republic of Iran, Algeria and Brazil.


Today’s meeting was the last one in the second part of the 2019 session of the Conference on Disarmament. The third and last part of the 2019 session will be held from 29 July to 13 September. The Conference will hold the next plenary meeting on Tuesday, 30 July.


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