United Nations: The first draft agreement
designed to free the planet from nuclear arms was circulated
here at a conference on the 189-nation Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
The draft, a copy of which was obtained by a news agency,
proposes a 26-point action plan to establish peace and
security in a nuclear weapons-free world. It was prepared by
Zimbabwe`s UN Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku.
The proposal reaffirms the validity of NPT including
Article VI, which commits nuclear states to eventually getting
rid of these weapons. But it underlines that his should be
done to a predefined calendar.
It calls on nuclear states to begin talks no later
than in 2011 with the aim of speeding up the nuclear
disarmament process.
That would lead to a 2014 UN conference to draw up a
plan for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, said the
document.
The five original nuclear weapon states -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- pledged to move
towards disarmament. Non-weapon states forswore the bomb in
return for access to peaceful nuclear energy.
But since the treaty came into force in 1970,
Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea have all acquired a
nuclear weapons capability.
PTI
