EU nations to push for global nuclear test ban treaty

Date: 25/07/1996

WHEN the United Nations disarmament conference reconvenes in Geneva next week, EU governments will make a united push for the rapid implementation of a comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT).

Ambassadors of Union member states in Geneva will join their counterparts from around the globe on 29 July for a meeting which could last several days.

The 38-nation negotiations on a global treaty to ban underground nuclear tests have already dragged on for more than two years. EU officials hope it will be signed by the end of September, but the treaty cannot take effect until most members have ratified it.

The idea of a CTBT has world-wide support, but two and a half years of talks have shown it lacks momentum.

In January, US President Bill Clinton was clamouring for the negotiations to be completed before June as the only way to contain “the spread and further development” of nuclear weapons.

All five declared nuclear powers - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - are taking part in the talks, as are the so-called 'threshold states' - India, Pakistan, Israel and others who have the technology to conduct nuclear tests.

All EU member states will be there, but acting as 15 entities, rather than one. They have resisted joint actions and common policy in the fields of armament and disarmament, but UK officials say the 15 will go into the meeting on a united front. “There are no major disagreements,” said one.

London has a few concerns of its own about CTBT, notably regarding India's insistence on a timetable for the destruction of existing nuclear weapons before Delhi will sign the treaty.

While India is not alone in linking the CTBT with the wider issue of nuclear disarmament, EU governments agree that India, which is one of the requisite states which must ratify the treaty before it can take effect, should not hold the accord hostage.

“It has never been on the agenda. This is not a disarmament treaty, it is a test ban treaty,” said the British official.

China remains another stumbling block on the road to a nuclear-arms-free world as long as Beijing continues its testing programme.

The country plans one more test this autumn, but EU officials say they welcome China's commitment to stop tests and sign the treaty.

Officials are counting on the commitments made by numerous countries at the May 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, where governments pledged to complete a test ban treaty by the end of 1996 and to exercise “utmost restraint” until then.

Five underground tests in the South Pacific ordered by French President Jacques Chirac and two Chinese blasts showed other NPT members just how much they need to move on a CTBT.

During its plenary session last week (19 July), the European Parliament called on member states to use their influence at the Geneva conference to simplify the provisions for the treaty's entry into force and get it turned into law as quickly as possible.

Expressing frustration that the conference had not kept to its 18 June deadline for concluding negotiations, MEPs urged participants to complete talks by 12 August.

If agreement can be reached next month, the treaty could be signed at the United Nations general assembly's next session, which begins in September.

The Parliament has warned EU governments that it will keep a close watch on progress and that, in addition to keeping track of signatures to the treaty, they will ask ministers to report back to them before the end of the year.

The European Commission has no role in the CTBT negotiations, and has kept even quieter this time than it did during the NPT talks.

Commission officials lobbied third countries to approve the NPT, but said that this time they had decided against doing so because of “resentment and uneasiness” towards the Brussels-based body.