19 May 1998
UNITED NATIONS REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1998
"A WORLD OF NEWS FROM THE WORLD ORGANIZATION" Daily Highlights Monday, 18 May, 1998 This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Office of Communications and of Public Information at the United Nations. ............ -- UN Under-Secretary-General on Disarmament outlines UN response in wake of India's nuclear tests. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- UN UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL ON DISARMAMENT OUTLINES UN RESPONSE IN WAKE OF INDIA'S NUCLEAR TESTS. In the wake of India's underground nuclear tests last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged both India and Pakistan to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), according to the Under- Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala. Mr. Dhanapala was speaking to correspondents at UN Headquarters on Monday about the United Nations reaction to the tests carried out 11 and 13 May. He said the Secretary-General had met separately on 14 May with India and Pakistan's Permanent Representatives to the UN and had also written to the Prime Ministers of both countries. The Secretary-General's task was to try to establish a position that went beyond the national security interests of individual States and looked at global peace and security, Mr Dhanapala said. It was clear from India's statements that it was considering accession to the CTBT. Therefore, the Secretary-General had urged the Indian Government to continue with that process and he hoped that the international community would make it possible for India and Pakistan to adhere to the Treaty. In his letter to the Indian Prime Minister, the Secretary-General underlined the urgency and importance of achieving nuclear disarmament, leading to the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons. He also welcomed India's promise to consider the negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament for a fissile material cut-off treaty. The Secretary-General, in his letter to the Pakistani Prime Minister, expressed concern that India's tests ran counter to the norms widely respected by the international community and urged restraint by all States so there would be no escalation of an arms race in south Asia. Tensions were best solved by dialogue, he wrote, and urged Pakistan to subscribe to the CTBT. Pakistan and India's adherence to the CTBT, he said, would add significantly to stability in the region, the Secretary- General believed. Mr. Dhanapala told correspondents that the UN looked forward to the early negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty during the Conference on Disarmament, which is currently meeting in Geneva. He pointed out that it was also important, he said, to urge the five recognized nuclear weapons States to honour their commitments with regard to nuclear disarmament. An ad hoc committee on negative security assurances established by the Conference on Disarmament meant the prospect of a treaty being negotiated to assure non-nuclear weapons States that they would not be threatened or attacked with nuclear weapons held by nuclear weapons States, he said. The Under Secretary-General for Disarmament said there was also a great need to establish in the Conference an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament. If that was not immediately possible, the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States -- who were all nuclear states should hold negotiations among themselves to advance the cause of nuclear disarmament, he added. All nuclear weapons States and nuclear weapons capable States should negotiate a "no first use" treaty, which would greatly enhance global security and allay the fears of non-nuclear weapons States about the use of nuclear weapons, he said. -- -- -- ....................
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