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U.S. Favors Spotlighting Non-Proliferation Treaty Violators

13 February 2006

"Effective multilateralism" key to ongoing success, says State Department official

Washington –- The United States and its allies are committed to confronting would-be violators of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says Andrew K. Semmel, deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation.

Working through international institutions, such as the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), smaller forums such as the Group of Eight (G8) and the European Union, as well as one-on-one partnerships, the NPT has been strengthened through America’s strategy of “effective multilateralism,” Semmel told participants at a February 9 panel discussion sponsored by American University in Washington.

The NPT is the cornerstone of the international community’s efforts to prevent and, when necessary, respond to the spread of nuclear weapons, he said.

Semmel said three major challenges face the NPT regime:

• Ensuring that countries that signed on to the NPT are complying with their obligation not to pursue nuclear weapons programs.  To this end, he said, the United States has played a key role in building multilateral support for the IAEA board of governors to report Iran’s NPT noncompliance to the U.N. Security Council and for the continued diplomatic efforts to resolve North Korea’s noncompliance through the Six-Party Talks.

• Countering the rise in illicit trafficking in nuclear weapons-related technologies and equipment and the attempts of nonstate entities, such as terrorists, to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction.  One of the greatest security threats is the possibility that countries in violation of their NPT obligations might partner with terrorists, Semmel said.

• Addressing the spread of nuclear technologies that could be used to develop nuclear weapons.  “We must balance the right to peaceful development of nuclear energy with the need to prevent nuclear proliferation,” Semmel said.

Effective multilateralism has been used in recent years to address some of these challenges, he said, including a proposal for a U.N Security Council resolution to criminalize WMD proliferation, efforts to create a special IAEA committee on nuclear safeguards and a proposal to ban exports of sensitive uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing technologies in exchange for access to reliable, affordable nuclear fuels.

Even though the treaty faces grave challenges today, Semmel said, the international community’s response  “will shape the Treaty’s viability and impact directly on U.S. national and international security.”

Semmel reminded the audience of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar’s recent observation that “The nonproliferation precedents we set in the coming decade are likely to determine whether we are able to construct a global coalition dedicated to preventing catastrophes and giving people the confidence and security to pursue fulfilling lives.”

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)