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A two-day workshop focused on global nuclear disarmament efforts was conducted this week in the Philippines in preparation for the upcoming Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Jan. 8).
More than 50 nuclear experts were in Manila for talks on establishing a fissile material cutoff treaty and the ramifications of the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Also to be addressed at the workshop were U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plan for global nuclear disarmament, North Korea's nuclear activities, the successor treaty to the expired Russia-U.S. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and a 1995 resolution that calls for a nuclear weapon-free Middle East.
"The workshop will focus on how to strengthen the review process. It will set the benchmark that will lead to the total elimination of nuclear weapons," said Filipino Ambassador Libran Cabactulan who is expected to chair the review conference when it meets this May at the United Nations in New York.
The Philippines collaborated with Austria and Norway to put on the workshop, which involved participation from 37 NPT member nations, six global groups and six nongovernmental organizations, according to Cabactulan (Kyodo News I/Breitbart.com, Feb. 1).
Cabactulan told Kyodo he had "cautious optimism" that the review conference would result in improvements to the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
"Despite the inspiring statements of global leaders the differences in position, the disparity right now on the table is still huge and enormous," he said.
The end result of the conference, last held in 2005 in a meeting that closed in failure, "will depend highly on the political will, the flexibility that the state parties and negotiators will bring into the 2010 review conference itself and maybe in the lead-up to that," according to Cabactulan.
"I think we have to manage the expectation of the international community and everybody while at the same time continue to push the negotiators," he said. "It is very important that the treaty becomes strong and achieves its purpose" (Kyodo News II/Breitbart.com, Feb. 2).
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said it was important for his country to address the nuclear threat as so many Filipinos are living in areas where the spread of nuclear weapons is taking place or that are considered vulnerable to a nuclear attack, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
"It is our responsibility in government to protect our people, wherever they may be, and ensure that they feel secure. With millions of Filipinos abroad, we will strive to protect them from harm arising from a nuclear incident, the only way to do this is to curtail the spread of and totally eliminate nuclear weapons," Romulo said in remarks opening the workshop (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily Online, Feb. 1).