GENEVA, May 18: The United States on Thursday presented a draft global treaty aimed at banning future production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material, but leaving existing stockpiles untouched.
Stephen Rademaker, acting assistant US secretary in the bureau of international security and non-proliferation, called for immediate negotiations on the US text and for a pact to be agreed by year-end.
He outlined the proposal to the Conference on Disarmament, which is backed by the United Nations.
The Geneva forum has been deadlocked for years over the issue, but the search for a breakthrough has intensified because of mounting international concern over Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programmes.
“The treaty text that we are putting forward contains the essential provisions that would comprise a successful, legally binding Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT),” Rademaker said in a speech presenting the four-page US text.
“Our draft treaty has a straight-forward scope. It bans ... the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices,” he added.
The 65-member state forum is holding a special session to try to kick-start negotiations to prevent production of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium.
Negotiations — seen as the next step in global nuclear disarmament — began briefly in August 1998.
They quickly broke down due to arguments including the scope of a future treaty and whether it should cover existing stocks and have a verification regime to check against cheating.
It is unclear whether the US proposal — which does not include inspections — will be enough to start substantive negotiations and end years of wrangling.
Developing countries want the talks widened to include total nuclear disarmament.
China, Russia and others have also been pressing for parallel negotiations to prevent an arms race in outer space, something which Washington has been resisting.
Rademaker told a news conference that ‘a number of countries’ continued to produce fissile material for weapons purposes, and production must be halted as soon as possible.
Rademaker accused Iran ‘even today’ of failing to cooperate with an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into its nuclear programme.
He also bluntly warned North Korea — which declared it has a nuclear weapons programme after withdrawing from the NPT in 2003 — against transferring nuclear weapons or testing nuclear weapons or missiles.—Reuters
