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Disarmament DiplomacyIssue No. 29, August - September 1998SAARC SummitTenth Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Colombo, Sri Lanka, 29-31 July 1998Editor's note: the summit was attended by Bangladesh (Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina), Bhutan (Chair of Council of Ministers Lyonpo Jigmi Y. Thinley), India (Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee), Maldives (President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom), Nepal (Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala), Pakistan (Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) and Sri Lanka (President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga). Final Declaration 'Colombo Declaration,' 31 July 1998 Extracts "78. The Heads of State or Government were of the view that stability, peace and security in South Asia could not be considered in isolation of the global security environment. Although great power rivalry which the NAM [Non-Aligned Movement] had consistently opposed, no longer posed a serious threat and the danger of a global nuclear conflagration had abated, yet some States had sought to maintain huge arsenals of nuclear weapons. The NPT and the CTBT, to which some SAARC members were signatories, had not led to any progress towards nuclear disarmament nor prevented proliferation. They underscored their commitment to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and the need for promoting nuclear disarmament on a universal basis, under effective international control. They recognised that global non-proliferation goals cannot be achieved in the absence of progress towards nuclear disarmament and in this context called upon all nuclear-weapon States, whether party or non-party to the NPT, for a transparent and credible process of negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament. 79. The Heads of State or Government therefore urged the Conference on Disarmament to commence negotiations on a comprehensive, universal and non-discriminatory international instrument prohibiting the use or the threat of nuclear weapons as well as eliminating such weapons in existing arsenals. 80. The Heads of State or Government noted the contents of the recent UN Diplomatic Conference on the establishment of an International Criminal Court and the fact that the Conference had not addressed the issues like crime and drug trafficking and the crime of terrorism and indiscriminate violence aimed at innocent civilians and use of weapons of mass destruction. ..." Source: Government of India web-site, http://www.indiagov.org © 1998 The Acronym Institute. |