Gay Mitchell
Ceist:5 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on his recent initiative on nuclear disarmament. [16640/98]
Ceisteanna — Questions. Priority Questions. - Nuclear Disarmament Initiative.
I am pleased to be able to avail of this opportunity to report to the House on the initiative. I began working last year with my colleagues from New Zealand, Sweden and South Africa on ways and means to rekindle the will of the international community for nuclear disarmament. These efforts have now led to the formation of a new coalition of like-minded countries, including those countries with which we have for many years worked in the field of nuclear disarmament — Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and, more recently, Slovenia, a grouping now described as the New Agenda Coalition.
This initiative sets out to try to secure a firm political commitment from the nuclear weapon states and nuclear weapons-capable states to proceed with the rapid elimination of nuclear weapons. Once this commitment has been secured we can put in motion the actions that will necessarily follow, with the objective that in a few years we will have consigned nuclear weapons to history, protecting our future and that of our children.
Given that there is no agreed EU position on the pursuit of nuclear disarmament and that many of our partners are members of military alliances which subscribe to the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, it was clear from the outset that the declaration could not be an EU initiative. However, partners were informed of the initiative in advance and I am gratified the European Council in Cardiff on 15 and 16 June took special note of it.
The New Agenda Coalition group has injected a new sense of urgency into efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament. This initiative, announced through a joint ministerial declaration, is particularly timely. The work of my colleagues and myself predates the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan but however coincidental these recent developments may be, they can be seen as justifying, indeed validating, the necessity for this declaration.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the declaration has received a broad welcome internationally and the European Council at Cardiff took special note of it. Its full text has been circulated as an official document of the United Nations, of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The relevant non-governmental organisations such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Middle Powers Initiative have also welcomed it. In addition, I have received letters conveying approbation and congratulations from NGOs and members of the public all over the world. Yesterday, at a seminar in Dublin, I outlined to a number of Irish and international NGOs involved in nuclear disarmament the role they can play in promoting this issue. In my bilateral meetings since the launch of the declaration I have used every appropriate opportunity to draw the attention of my counterparts to the initiative.
Additional Information
While the declaration can stand on its own merits I hope the New Agenda Coalition can use it further to highlight the issue of nuclear disarmament. In my bilateral meetings with other countries between now and the United Nations General Assembly in September I will seek to build support for the declaration and the principles that underpin it. With my colleagues, I am examining how we might bring this initiative forward at the United Nations. This could include the tabling of a resolution at the General Assembly designed to focus international attention on the issue and secure the commitments to nuclear disarmament which the New Agenda Coalition has called for in the declaration from the nuclear weapons states and from the nuclear weapons-capable states.
Does the Minister agree we need to concentrate on what is happening in India and Pakistan to discourage not only those countries but others which might be planning to explode nuclear devices? In commending him on his initiative, I ask him to vigorously pursue new nuclear states. I am also concerned about former Soviet scientists who appear to be available for consultation and who are selling their services and advice and I hope the Minister's initiative will cover that problem.
Although the Aiken initiative resulted in the non-proliferation treaty, which Ireland was the first country to sign, the big five nuclear powers — the US, Russia, China, the UK and France — have done little to meet their part of the bargain, which was to reduce their arsenal so that zero nuclear capacity is eventually reached. I therefore ask the Minister to concentrate his efforts not only in the UN, as he has indicated he will, but within the EU, and to seek the support of like minded EU countries. There appears to be movement in Britain and the same may be possible in France. In the early 1960s we had a great effect and we can have an effect again. The Minister's initiative has my full support and I hope he will pursue it in both fora.
I am grateful to the Deputy for his kind remarks and support for the initiative — I think the whole House supports this new departure.
That is true.
The initiative results from an appreciation that there has been a lack of progress on nuclear disarmament since the end of the Cold War. We recognise that a number of steps have been taken, particularly by the United States and Russia. These reductions are not premised on any decisive political commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons, but rather they are designed to take account, albeit at a lower level, of the changed circumstances resulting from the end of the NATO-Warsaw Pact confrontation.
The Irish Government does not accept the rationale of arguments advanced during the Cold War for not implementing the legally binding commitments of the non-proliferation treaty. Such arguments have even less value today. While we had to recognise that during the Cold War the prospects for the elimination of nuclear weapons was constrained by events, now that the threat of that era has passed we cannot stand on the sidelines and watch helplessly as these weapons continue to be maintained.
In addition to India and Pakistan, Israel is a nuclear weapon capable state. None of these three nuclear weapon capable states is a non-proliferation treaty party. We cannot underestimate the extent to which nuclear weapons capability is contributing to tension in both the Middle East and South Asia. However, while India and Pakistan have both rejected the test ban treaty, Israel has signed the treaty but not ratified it.
I raised the issue with President Clinton, in advance of his visit to China, during his meeting with President McAleese in the White House last week. I also discussed the matter with the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.