ARMAMENTS

Photo: Third On-Site Inspection Training Cycle Health, Safety and Security Training Course. Credit: CTBTO

Japan's Largest Ever Voluntary Contribution to the CTBTO

By Jamshed Baruah

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – Japan, by far the only country to experience atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has decided to make the largest ever extra-budgetary contribution to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

The funds amounting to about USD 2.43 million will support a range of verification related activities to improve the detection capabilities of the Organisation – and thus pave the way for a world free of nuclear weapons.

A voluntary contribution of this size must be recognized as a strong signal of Japan’s commitment to ‘finish what we started’ – getting the Treaty into force and finalizing the International Monitoring System, said CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo.

: Jamshed Baruah; ARMAMENTS; 23 February 2017

Graphic: The trend in international transfers of major weapons, 1950—2016. Credit: SIPRI

Global Arms Trade Hits Highest Level Since Cold War Ended

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – With the global arms trade having reached its highest level since the end of the Cold War, the United States leads the list of countries transferring major weapons, and flows have increased to the Middle East, Asia and Oceania.

Releasing its latest figures on arms transfers, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said February 20 that the volume of international transfers of major weapons has grown continuously since 2004 and increased by 8.4 percent between 2007-2011 and 2012-2016.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 23 February 2017

Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary with Robin Perry and CTBTO GEM members Foreign Minister of Argentina Susana Malcorra, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Under-Secretary-General Angela Kane and former UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala

Relationship Between the CTBTO and OPANAL

By Lassina Zerbo

Lassina Zerbo is the Executive Secretary of Preparatory Commission for the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Following are excerpts from his statement at the XXV Session of the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL) in Mexico City on 14 February 2017.

VIENNA (IDN) - Mexico’s historical role in advancing non-proliferation and disarmament is well recognized, not least through the work of Nobel peace prize laureate Alfonso García Robles in the creation and adoption of the Treaty of Tlatelolco.

Let me also highlight the excellent relationship between the CTBTO and OPANAL in the context of the agreement that both entities concluded in 2002.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; 20 February 2017

Celebrating Tlatelolco – The First Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) - The commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Tlatelolco could not have come at a more opportune moment. In the UN General Assembly last year, Mexico and a number of Latin American and Caribbean countries joined with countries from other regions – including my own Sri Lanka – to ensure the adoption of the Resolution “Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations”.

This Resolution decided that a UN conference should be convened in 2017 “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons leading towards their total elimination”. The Conference will meet from March 27-31 and from June 15 – July 7, 2017.

: Jayantha Dhanapala; ARMAMENTS; 19 February 2017

Photo: Volodymyr Yelchenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN and President of the Security Council for February, speaks to journalists following urgent closed-door consultations of the Council on the latest launch of a ballistic missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Security Council Favours Dialogue While Condemning DPRK

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 15-member Security Council, including the veto-wielding USA, Russia, China, Britain and France, are keen to "reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond" and "maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North-East Asia at large".

With this in view, they have in a Press Statement on February 13, expressed their "commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation". They also welcome "efforts by Council members, as well as other States, to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue".

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 14 February 2017

Photo: UN High Representative for Disarmament Sergio Duarte at the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on 23 September 2011. Credit: James Leynse | CTBTO Preparatory Commission

Fifty Years of Success of Landmark Treaty of Tlatelolco

By Sergio Duarte and Jenifer Mackby*

On February 14, 2017 the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean – Treaty of Tlatelolco – celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Treaty prohibits the testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition of nuclear weapons. All 33 countries in the region are party to it. This article casts a close look at the vital importance of the treaty.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS | TRANSCEND Media Service) - As the first of its kind in a populated area, the Treaty made a fundamental contribution to both global and regional disarmament, peace and security. It includes a number of innovative provisions, such as indefinite duration, prohibition of reservations, a definition of nuclear weapon, a commitment by nuclear-weapon States to respect the militarily denuclearized status of the Zone through negative security assurances and the engagement of its Parties to utilize nuclear energy exclusively for peaceful purposes.

: Sergio Duarte; ARMAMENTS; 14 February 2017

Photo: Pyongyang in 1989 - Wikimedia Commons

Kazakhstan Joins UN & Nuclear Powers to Condemn North Korea

By Jamshed Baruah

NEW YORK (IDN) - Taking its mandate as non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2017-2018 seriously, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on February 12 said that it “strongly condemns” the ballistic missile launch conducted by DPRK-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) the same day.

The launch was “a blatant violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolution". North Korea is barred under United Nations resolutions from using ballistic missile technology, but six sets of UN sanctions since Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to rein in its drive for atomic weapons.

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 13 February 2017

Photo: A Trident missile-armed Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarine leaving its base at HMNB Clyde. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Forthcoming UN Conference Underlines Resistance to Nukes

By Samantha Sen

LONDON (IDN) - Now that the new world order some of us were talking about threatens to collapse into a new world disorder, the emerging fear is what the U.S and Russia could agree on, rather than what they disagree about. U.S President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have discovered one another as political twins looking in the same direction from opposite sides – what were thought to be opposing sides anyhow. Nowhere does this union of vision appear more deadly than in the business of nuclear armament, and business it is.

Both leaders have said yes to all the weapons they have, and nodded in the direction of yet more. Both have spoken of “strengthening” their nuclear capabilities. Strengthen how much more to what end? Dire arithmetic abounds on how many times over each can destroy the world. Skip the count; once would be enough.

: Samantha Sen; ARMAMENTS; 09 February 2017

Photo: From L to R: Front Row: Daniel Ellsberg, David Krieger, Noam Chomsky. Second Row: Paul K. Chappell, Rick Wayman, Elaine Scarry, Steven Starr, Richard Falk, Jackie Cabasso, Jennifer Simons, Peter Kuznick, Judith Lipton, Kimiaki Kawai. Third Row: Robert Laney, Mark Hamilton, Daniel Smith, John Mecklin, Hans Kristensen, Rich Appelbaum. (photo by Rick Carter)

The Rapidly Increasing Urgency of Nuclear Zero

By Rick Wayman*

SANTA BARBARA, CA, USA (IDN) - October 24-25, 2016, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation brought together a small group of academics, activists and thought leaders to discuss how to shift the global discourse toward nuclear disarmament. The symposium, entitled “The Fierce Urgency of Nuclear Zero: Changing the Discourse,” discussed the current state of nuclear threats, geopolitical and psychological obstacles to nuclear zero, and the path forward.

The symposium’s final statement was delayed in order to incorporate the new political realities following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, which took place just two weeks after the symposium.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; 05 February 2017

Photo: Demonstration in Lyon, France in the 1980s against nuclear weapons tests. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

An Eminent Buddhist Leader Urges Nuke Disarmament Summit

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) - Japanese Buddhist philosopher and peace builder Daisaku Ikeda has urged the U.S. and Russian leaders to come together for a summit meeting as soon as possible to pledge a global drift toward nuclear disarmament. The two countries together hold more than 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.

The advice by Ikeda, who is the President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist association, is contained in his 35th annual peace proposal titled “The Global Solidarity of Youth: Ushering in a New Era of Hope” issued on January 26, 2017.