St. Joseph Church
Bristol, Connecticut

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min
Pastoral Minister

On July 25, the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament released its report: "Facing Nuclear dangers: An Action Plan for the 21^st Century." Organized in August at the initiative of the Japanese government the 23-member panel of disarmament experts, diplomats, government officials and military strategists met to discuss the future of nuclear weapons and to make recommendations that would help to ensure that they would never be used.

PART TWO: MENDING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS TO REDUCE NUCLEAR DANGERS STOPPING AND REVERSING REGIONAL PROLIFERATION

South Asia

33. The Tokyo Forum therefore reaffirms the "benchmarks" for India and Pakistan articulated in the UN Security Council Resolution 1172 and the G8 Foreign Ministers’ communiqué of June 1998. The Forum calls on the international community to continue to urge India and Pakistan to implement all requirements in UN Security Council Resolution 1172, including: adherence to the CTBT without delay or conditions; immediate cessation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programs, including refraining form weaponization; cessation of production of fissile material for nuclear weapons purposes; and restraint from export of equipment, materials and technology that can contribute to the development of WMD ( weapons of mass destruction) of missiles capable of delivering them. The Tokyo Forum calls on India and Pakistan to maintain moratoria on nuclear testing.

34. The Tokyo Forum believes that international efforts to secure India’s and Pakistan’s acceptance of international norms must be sustained. Ultimately the goal is to persuade India and Pakistan to renounce nuclear weapons and to adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) as non-nuclear weapon states. The latter could only be achieved in connection with reconciliation on the subcontinent, a continued and revitalised US-Russia process of nuclear arms reductions and the widening of this process at a suitable stage to include China, France and the United Kingdom.

35. The Forum calls for India and Pakistan to each announce a national moratorium on the production of fissile material for weapons purposes until the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty negotiations are concluded, and to contribute constructively to those negotiations. In this context, and taking into account China’s wish to be a stabilizing force in international affairs, a declared Chinese moratorium on the production of fissile material for weapons purposes would encourage India and Pakistan to follow.

36. The Forum considers that India and Pakistan should acquire no special status under the NPT, let alone legal status as nuclear-weapon states, nor be rewarded with any other additional status as a result of their nuclear testing….

37. The Tokyo Forum calls on India and Pakistan to take concrete and verifiable steps to reduce nuclear dangers. …It is imperative that India and Pakistan finalise nuclear risk-reduction measures agreed to in the Lahore Declaration…The Tokyo Forum strongly supports the process begun at Lahore and rejects any efforts to resolve differences by force. The Tokyo Forum calls on the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and other nations to support the Lahore Declaration, and to offer to help implement any agreements reached in bilateral negotiations aimed at resolving the Kashmir dispute. New initiatives on Kashmir are especially needed in the wake of the 1999 conflict.

39. The Tokyo Forum calls on China and India to freeze or forgo nuclear deployments of long-range ballistic missiles in combination with a verifiable pledge not to station short-range missiles close to their common border….

The Middle East

43. …The Tokyo Forum therefore stresses the crucial importance of an Arab-Israeli peace process for the stability of the region and for the future of nuclear non-proliferation. A successful peace process would also permit progress in removing nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East in the medium and long-term period. Indeed, the processes of peace and WMD disarmament should proceed in parallel.

45. …In the short-term the Tokyo Forum urgently appeals to all states in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as well as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) export control arrangements—especially Russia—to do their utmost to avoid any relevant transfers, including both technology and expertise, to the Middle East. The Forum also strongly endorses efforts to persuade North Korea, and other states non-members of the MTCR, to refrain from any transfers of sensitive missile technology to the region.

47. The Tokyo Forum calls on the UN Security Council, especially its five permanent members, to do its utmost to establish as a soon as possible a long-term WMD control regime for Iraq based on the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and on the long-term monitoring plans approved by it in 1991. The Forum calls on Iraq to comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and strongly urges the council’s Permanent Members to give priority to non-proliferation issues in their dealings with all states of the region.

48. The Tokyo Forum urges all states in the region to take unilateral steps to create confidence and reassurance. We call on all states in the region to: join the NPT; ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; accept international Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on all nuclear materials under their jurisdiction, including those contained in the recent Protocol; sign and ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention, and take further measures to clarify beyond doubt their compliance with the NPT. We call on Israel to shut down its unsafeguarded nuclear reactor at Dimona or immediately subject it tot international safeguards. All states in the region should suspend missile flight tests and restrain missile programs. Negotiations should be initiated towards a regional agreement to limit missile proliferation, that could usefully draw upon the provisions of the 1987 US-Soviet INF Treaty.

Major Recommendations

Stop and reverse the unraveling of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime by reaffirming the treaty’s central bargain.

Eliminate nuclear weapons through phased reductions.

Bring the nuclear test ban into force.

Revitalize START and expand the scope of nuclear reductions.

Adopt nuclear transparency measures.

Zero nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert.

Control fissile material, especially in Russia

Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction prevention.

Strengthen measures against missile proliferation.

Exercise caution on missile defence deployments.

Stop and reverse proliferation in South Asia

Eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

Eliminate nuclear and missile dangers on the Korean Peninsula.

No vetoes in support of proliferation.

15. Revitalise the Conference on Disarmament.

Strengthen verification for disarmament.

Create effective non-compliance mechanisms fort nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Source: Arms Control Today, July/August 1999, Volume 29 #5.

Compiled by Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created 10/28/1999