Paris, 2 December 2009 – The United Kingdom and France should get rid of their nuclear weapons because they “serve no useful purpose”, Mr Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, Liberal Group) told the Assembly on Wednesday.

“Neither country would be the first to use their nuclear weapons and neither can afford to keep them”, he said when presenting a report on behalf of the Political Committee entitled “Current developments in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament” (Document 2052). If nuclear weapons were seen as an effective deterrent, all countries would have them, he added. The Global Zero initiative for nuclear disarmament, launched in Paris last December, would be the better alternative.

He noted that the one agreement that could help curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons – the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1) between the United States and Russia – was to expire on Saturday. The de facto nuclear powers include India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan. In two months, Iran could be ready to manufacture nuclear devices, while according to intelligence reports North Korea has as much as 50 kg of plutonium, enough for six to eight nuclear warheads.

China needed to play a more important role in reducing the military nuclear threat from North Korea, he said. “China is accepting no responsibility for its role in the world”, he asserted. “It benefits from its trade with the West, but is giving nothing back in return”.
More needed to be done to ensure that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons did not fall into the hands of extremists, he said, adding that some of Pakistan’s nuclear missile sites “are as close as 50 kilometres or less away from the Afghan border”. Although efforts were being made to defuse conflicts all over the world, the dispute between India and Pakistan was being neglected, he said. “They are both nuclear powers, and there is a real danger of an escalation between them”.

There had been hopes that the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan at the end of second world war would see an end to these weapons, but instead the world was facing the possibility that these same weapons “may be used in a haphazard and casual way”, he warned.

The report, which was adopted unanimously, urged continued and deeper dialogue with Iran and North Korea to prevent the development of nuclear weapons, while guaranteeing their right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. A firmer stance by the international community and more stringent sanctions “will be unavoidable should Iran and North Korea turn their backs on cooperation and negotiations”. Its eight recommendations include forging an EU-US non-proliferation strategy concept in the run-up to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference next May in New York.