Adjournment Debate. - Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific. – Dáil Éireann (27th Dáil) – Wednesday, 14 Jun 1995

Adjournment Debate. - Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific.

Mr. Dukes

I am grateful to you, Sir, for allowing me to raise this matter. I have been shocked and appalled by President Chirac's brutal and uncomprising announcement that France intends to carry out eight nuclear tests on the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific between now and the end of May next year. My sense of shock and outrage at this is shared by the leaders of all the party groups on the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and by other members of the committee and Houses of the Oireachtas to whom I have spoken today. President Chirac's announcement that France will sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty next autumn after the completion of this series of tests is utterly cynical and provocative. It amounts to a clear statement that France believes in a test ban treaty only in circumstances where that treaty has no real relevance to French policy. This will seriously damage the prospects of an early test ban.

This French move, coupled with the recent nuclear test by the People's Republic of China will exacerbate the difficulties facing us not only in relation to nuclear non-proliferation, but also in relation to nuclear disarmament. So far France has reportedly manufactured 800 nuclear warheads, 500 of which are currently deployed. The only point of the current series of tests can be to modernise and fortify its arsenal, if not, to increase it. I fear we will see an increase in tension on issues connected with nuclear armaments. That fear was strengthened today during a conversation I had with a diplomatic representative of a nuclear-equipped State.

This appalling French decision clearly highlights the grave disadvantages flowing from the fact that the European Union does not have the same solid treaty basis for a common foreign and security policy as it has for, say, its agricultural policy. Even with the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, European Union action in the security field is purely intergovernmental. That means that other member states of the European Union have no treaty policy lever to exert on the French on this issue. I should point out also that since the French nuclear deterrent-nuclear capability is not subject to NATO influence, the NATO partners have no lever to bring to bear on this situation either.

Contrary to what many of our anti-European Union Cassandras claim, greater political cohesion, particularly in the area of foreign and security policy, would give us the means, or more ample means, of curbing the type of nationalistic adventurism in which the French are now indulging to the detriment of the security interests of Europe and the world. Stronger political cohesion could give us a more effective means to end the ruthless exploitation of the people and natural resources of the South Pacific and the cavalier treatment of the people of Australia and New Zealand.

I ask the Government to protest in the strongest possible terms to the French Government against this monstrous decision. I ask the Government to make it clear that it will protest and keep doing so and not accept the arrogant French assertion that this decision is irrevocable. I do not believe that can be accepted in today's world.

By the same token I take this opportunity to ask Fianna Fáil to take action. The Fianna Fáil spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Burke, who is present has been very forthright in recent months in his condemnation of nuclear power in all its guises. I would like to know whether he will now exert himself in the context of his party's curious relationship with President Chirac's to have this obnoxious decision reversed. Whatever means of pressure can be brought to bear should be used by our Government and our political system. This decision has cast the most serious gloom over efforts I know we all support, irrespective of our political affiliations, to rid the world of the threat of nuclear disaster.

Ms Burton

I am appalled and disappointed by the decision of the French Government. Regarding the Government's response, I advise the Deputy that the Tánaiste issued a statement today criticising in strong terms the French Government's decision to resume nuclear testing. The French Ambassador was received in the Taoiseach's Department today by an official who, conveyed his deep concern and seach, conveyed his deep concern and that of the Government about this matter to the French authorities.

Last night's announcement of the decision of the French Government to resume nuclear testing has given rise to considerable international concern, especially on the part of countries of the Pacific region. Statements of regret and disappointment have been issued by a large number of countries including, in addition to Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden and Denmark.

The Government has already expressed its deep concern at the announcement that France intends to resume nuclear testing later this year. In his statement today, the Tánaiste said that the decision would be viewed as a setback to the efforts to bring about an early and complete ban on nuclear testing.

The decisions of France and China to continue nuclear testing could have serious implications for the ongoing efforts to bring about early agreement on such a ban—implications whose full extent cannot be foreseen at this point.

The Government's concern on this issue has, as I have said, been made known to the French authorities today. For their part, the French authorities have given an assurance that France remains fully committed to signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in late 1996.

Earlier, the Government's concern at the nuclear test explosion carried out by the People's Republic of China on 15 May was expressed in a statement made by the Tánaiste on the following day, as well, as in his subsequent reply to questions on the issue in Dáil Éireann on 23 May.

At the recent NPT Review and Extension Conference in New York, the nuclear powers undertook to conclude a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty no later than 1996. The conference called on the nuclear weapon states, pending the entry into force of a comprehensive treaty, to exercise, "utmost restraint". The resumption of nuclear testing is, therefore, not in keeping with the outcome of the NPT conference. It is particularly disappointing that two nuclear powers, France and China, have decided to continue testing at this time.

In his statement of 18 April to the NPT conference, the Tánaiste stated that the moratoria on nuclear testing introduced by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and France should continue in force pending the conclusion of a comprehensive test ban treaty; and he called on China to introduce a similar ban. In his Dáil reply of 23 May, and again in his statement of 7 June on the Estimates for his Department at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Tánaiste reiterated his hope that a unilateral ban would be maintained.

The approach of the Government to nuclear weapons issues was set out in a resolution on the NPT adopted by Dáil Éireann on 22 March and also in the Tánaiste's statement at the beginning of the NPT conference on 18 April. Central to this approach is the Government's wish to see: the complete abolition of nuclear weapons and concrete steps taken to this end; an end to the testing of nuclear weapons, everywhere, for all time; and an end to the production and stockpiling of materials, particularly plutonium, for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

The Government also wants to see the environmental, health and safety issues associated with the nuclear industry effectively addressed.

As the Tánaiste reported to the Dáil on 23 May, the results of the conference corresponded closely with Ireland's objectives. On 11 May, the states which were party to the NPT agreed without a vote to extend the treaty indefinitely, to strengthen the process for review of implementation and, importantly, they also agreed a set of principles and objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. This document identified three specific measures as a programme of action for the implementation of Article VI of the Treaty which concerns nuclear disarmament. These measures were: completion, no later than 1996, of a universal, internationally and effectively verifiable Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It was stated that pending the entry into force of such a treaty, the nuclear weapon states should exercise utmost restraint; immediate commencement, and early conclusion, of negotiations for a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices; and the determined pursuit by the nuclear weapon states of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons.

The Government attach great importance to the fact that all parties to the NPT, particularly the nuclear weapon states, reaffirmed their commitment, for all time, to prevent nuclear proliferation and to work on a programme of action for nuclear disarmament with the ultimate goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Mr. R. Burke

That is nonsense when the Chinese and the French are ignoring it.

Ms Burton

Far from legitimising the possession of nuclear weapons, the indefinite extension of the treaty placed a continuing obligation on the nuclear weapon states to pursue nuclear disarmament. The Government is determined that the nuclear weapon states will have to answer for their performance in respect of these measures at each future five year review. It will use the enhanced review arrangements, beginning with the preparatory meeting in 1997 for the review conference of the year 2000, to see that the nuclear weapon states are held to their commitments. Despite the discouraging setback represented by the continuation of nuclear testing, they hope that a comprehensive treaty will be in place when those preparations begin. The early achievement of a total ban on nuclear testing in all environments forever remains a priority of the Government.

Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 14 Jun 1995