Ensure nuclear arms-free world

Dipu Moni urges int'l community

5 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Diplomatic Correspondent

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has called upon the international community to come together to ensure a world free from nuclear weapons and leave behind a planet habitable for the generations to come. Making Bangladesh national statement at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday morning, she said it was a shame for the international community that the number of hungry mouths crossed one billion at the height of contemporary technological advancement and luxury. Dipu Moni also condemned the ongoing arms race and the global arms expenditure of some one and a half trillion dollars a year when the developing countries, particularly LDCs like Bangladesh, were struggling to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this context, she drew attention to Bangladesh's impeccable record in disarmament and non-proliferation, including her adherence to NPT and CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty), and said Bangladesh remained non-nuclear by choice. Speaking at the general debate of the conference, the foreign minister said Bangladesh was the first Annex-2 country from South Asia to have ratified the CTBT, whose ratification is necessary to enter the CTBT into force. Bangladesh had concluded the safeguards agreement with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), including the Additional Protocols, she added. Dipu Moni also mentioned about the resolution unanimously adopted by the Bangladesh Parliament early this year urging for a successful outcome of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, which would address all the three pillars of the NPTnuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The Bangladesh Parliamentary resolution, which, among other issues, expressed concern about risks posed by the continued possession of nuclear weapons, their proliferationboth horizontal and vertical, the expansive role given to nuclear weapons in security doctrines, and the possibility of acquisition and use of such weapons by non-state actors. She said the observation of the resolution that any use of nuclear weapons would constitute “an international crime, including crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, war crimes and genocide”. Turning on nuclear enriched countries, the foreign minister said it's the obligation of the nuclear weapon states to provide security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. In her speech, she also dwelt at length on the NPT States Parties' inalienable right to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and opposed any move or restrictions imposed on transfer of nuclear technology or equipment to non-nuclear-weapon states for such peaceful uses. She referred to the high potential of nuclear energy and nuclear technology in electricity generation and in addressing other contemporary challenges, including hunger, disease, natural resource management, environmental pollution and climate change, and urged all to enhance cooperation in these areas to guarantee sustainable development in developing countries like Bangladesh. She referred to the recent positive developments in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation but cautioned that these steps were “decidedly insufficient for freeing this planet from the curse of nuclear weapons”.