South Africa expressed concern in Austria on Tuesday over the lack of progress made by nuclear-weapon states in eliminating their nuclear arsenals, ambassador Abdul Minty said.
Minty was speaking at a conference of parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in Vienna, Austria. The two-week conference, which started on Monday, was held in preparation for a full review of the treaty in 2010.
”Notwithstanding this concern, South Africa is particularly encouraged by the recent statement of a nuclear-weapon state reaffirming its unequivocal undertaking to the disarmament measures contained in the 1995 and 2000 review conference decisions and final document,” Minty said.
South Africa called on other nuclear-weapon states to reaffirm this commitment.
The five nuclear-weapon states are the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom and Russia.
Minty said that some nuclear-weapon states have suggested that they are not bound by any time frames in the treaty to disarm.
”Any presumption of the indefinite possession of nuclear weapons by the nuclear-weapon states remains incompatible with the provisions of the NPT, as well as with the broader goal of the maintenance of international peace and security,” he said.
The conference was held against the international backdrop of a stalled attempt to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme and with Iran under United Nations sanctions for failing to halt uranium enrichment.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the meeting got off to a rocky start with Iran opposing wording in the meeting’s agenda that mentioned the ”need for full compliance with the treaty”.
The agenda must be adopted by consensus before delegates can move on to more substantive matters, the report said, adding that Iran could force the meeting to adjourn to a later date.
Minty in his address said South Africa supports all efforts to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. South Africa produced nuclear weapons in the 1980s, but destroyed them in 1990 and signed the NPT in 1991. — Sapa