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REPORT ⁽¹⁾

submitted on behalf of the Defence Committee ⁽²⁾

Part 1 (5 parts)

RAPPORTEUR'S PREFACE

DRAFT ORDER

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

I. Introduction

II. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and its adaptation

III. The United Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva

IV. Nuclear arms reductions and nuclear disarmament

APPENDICES

I. Total TLE liabilities and reductions as of 1 January 1997

II. CFE ceilings, liabilities, reductions and holdings, as of 1 January 1997

In preparing the present report, the Rapporteur was extremely fortunate to receive a great deal of assistance from the authorities consulted and would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all concerned for their cooperation.

On 11 July 1997, the Rapporteur met Mr Bill Hopkinson, Assistant Under-Secretary, Policy, at the Ministry of Defence, London.

The Rapporteur also had discussions with the following permanent representatives to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and their staff, in Vienna on 2 and 3 September 1997:

H.E. Ambassador Hansjörg Eiff, Head of the German Delegation;

H.E. Ambassador Alexander Gruchko, Head of the Russian Delegation;

H.E. Ambassador Adam Kobieracki, Head of the Polish Delegation;

H.E. Ambassador Johannes Landman, Head of the Netherlands Delegation;

General Greg Govan, United States Delegation;

Mr Paul Flaherty, Counsellor, United Kingdom Delegation;

Mr Graham Paul, Counsellor, French Delegation;

At a dinner on 2 September 1997 hosted by Mr Paul Flaherty of the United Kingdom Delegation, a discussion took place with the following participants:

Mr Gabor Brodi, Head of the Hungarian Delegation;

Mr Namik Erpul, Counsellor, Turkish Delegation;

Mr Oystein Hovdkinn, Minister, Norwegian Delegation;

Mr Ivo Petrov, Head of the Bulgarian Delegation;

Mr Vagif Sadykhov, Head of the Azerbaijan Delegation;

Mr Lamberto Zannier, Counsellor, Italian Delegation.

At a luncheon on 3 September 1997 hosted by H.E. Ambassador Eiff of Germany, a round table discussion took place with the following participants:

H.E. Ambassador Antonio Cosano, Spanish Delegation;

H.E. Ambassador Hervé Ladsous, French Delegation;

H.E. Ambassador Johannes Landman, Netherlands Delegation;

Mr Evangelos Denaxas, Greek Delegation;

Mrs Maria da Graca Queiroz Goncalves Pereira, Portugese Delegation;

Mr Nigel Haywood, United Kingdom Delegation;

Mr Gérard Philipps, Luxembourg Delegation;

Mr Jean-Joel Schittecatte, Belgium Delegation;

Mr Klaus Zillikens, German Delegation.

In Geneva on 9 October 1997, the Rapporteur met the following representatives from delegations of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament:

Mr Klaus Achenbach, Counsellor, German Delegation;

Mr Richard Tauwhare, Deputy Permanent Representative, United Kingdom Delegation;

Mr Valery Zemskov, Deputy Permanent Representative, Russian Delegation.

At the request of the Rapporteur, the Defence Counsellor also met Mr Crispin Hain-Cole, Head of disarmament, arms control and cooperative security, NATO, who had formerly been a member of the United Kingdom Delegation to the OSCE in Vienna.

The Assembly,

1. Aware of the negotiations in Vienna to adapt the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE);
2. Convinced that an adapted CFE Treaty, no longer based on the cold war bloc-to-bloc approach but rather on a system of national and territorial ceilings for treaty-limited equipment, will be an essential step towards enhanced security in Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals;
3. Taking into account the international efforts to draw up a treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines;
4. Aware of the many bilateral and multilateral efforts to reduce nuclear arms arsenals and to promote nuclear disarmament;
5. Worried over reports mentioning the risks of a deterioration of Russia's nuclear forces,

To keep itself fully informed about all the abovementioned issues and report to the Assembly if any important new developments require the latter to take action.

In spring 1990, your Rapporteur prepared a report on the negotiations on conventional armed forces in Europe. These negotiations were concluded that same year with the signature of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE).

Since then many new developments have taken place. East-west relations have seen a huge improvement but, at the same time, a number of violent conflicts have taken place both in Europe and elsewhere - such as the Gulf war, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Great Lakes and Chechnya.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that in the civilised world there is a growing conviction that fewer arms are needed to maintain and guarantee peace and security in the world. This growing conviction has resulted in unexpected progress in the field of disarmament. A number of new disarmament treaties and agreements have been concluded to reduce the numbers of both conventional and nuclear weapons and to control the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In the present report an effort has been made to describe succinctly the most important recent developments in the field of disarmament, without claiming to be exhaustive. The report does not discuss the Treaty on the limitation of anti-ballistic missile systems (ABM Treaty), the missile technology control regime (MTCR) and the Wassenaar Arrangement which succeeded COCOM, since these have been discussed in reports of the Technological and Aerospace Committee ⁽³⁾. No recommendations to the Council have been proposed since the Council as such is not involved in any of these negotiations. The possibility cannot, however, be excluded that in the future the disarmament process will have direct consequences for the maintenance of peace and security in Europe. The Defence Committee is therefore obliged to monitor the disarmament process closely and give its opinion on those consequences, if it is deemed necessary.

ASSEMBLY OF WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION
43, avenue du President Wilson
F-75775 Paris cedex 16 France
Tel 331-53672200; Fax 331-47204543
E-mail: 100315.240@Compuserve.com