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Senior UN Official on Multilateral Disarmament, Arms Control
A senior UN official said Saturday that the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, although a bilateral document between the US and Russia, bears great influence on international strategic stability.
Jayantha Dhanapala, UN Under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, said that the National Missile Defense (NMD) plan of the US has "created apprehension among other important countries", and "fears" that it may also threaten the ABM treaty.
The NMD program "clearly has been controversial," he noted, adding that that is why the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan advised caution on this matter.
"Then therefore, the widest consultations possible are necessary so that we can have agreement among the key players," Dhanapala said in an interview with Chinese media during his first China trip after he assumed the current post.
The ABM treaty has been claimed in various resolutions adopted by the UN as well as in many other declarations that it serves as a cornerstone to the strategic stability in the world, the senior UN official said.
Dhanapala noted that the multilateral disarmament is now at a very critical stage, saying that many achievements have been made, especially in the post-cold war period, but "there are also new trends today that we have to take note of."
One of the trends is that the global military spending, after ten years of decline, is once gain on the increase, he said, adding that this is "ominous".
Secondly, many forums in which the multilateral disarmament is being discussed within the UN are not producing results, he noted.
Dhanapala lamented that the conference on disarmament in Geneva unfortunately has not been able to adopt a program of work for years.
There have been no major agreements on nuclear disarmament for many years and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has not taken effect because key countries have neither signed it nor ratified it, he stated.
"The rejection of the CTBT by the U.S. Senate was also a major setback," and some other important countries such as India and Pakistan have not signed and ratified the treaty as well.
Dhanapala blamed those countries as of "lacking political will", saying that pressure would be put on them in the near future.
"If we have major countries developing political will", then much more achievements can be expected in effecting multilateral disarmament, he said.
The official said that the UN will continue to maintain a very active role in the endeavor.
China, as an important member of the UN organization and of the Security Council, has been very supportive to the UN in disarmament matters, Dhanapala said.
China has adopted the policy of non-first-use of its nuclear weapons, which is unique and is widely appreciated, and China has always stood for nuclear disarmament, Dhanapala said, stressing that it is "a very important contribution to the peace and security of the world."
Dhanapala, once a Sri Lankan diplomat, said that he was quite impressed by China's economic development during the ongoing trip.
He said that he had an in-depth discussion with officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, experts, and scholars on the multilateral disarmament issue, which has enabled him to have "a better insight into the Chinese prospective".
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