Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 67, October - November 2002

News Review

Central Asian NWFZ Ready for Signing

On September 30, a short statement from the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs announced an important breakthrough in international efforts to foster the spread and consolidation of nuclear-weapon-free zones: "Experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 25 to 27 September 2002, and successfully concluded the negotiations on the text of a Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone treaty. This is the result of five years of intensive work, which has been supported by the United Nations. They [the experts] agreed that the signing of the treaty should take place as soon as possible."

The breakthrough followed a two-week trip to the region (August 14-26) by UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala. The trip was previewed in a UN Press Release (August 12): "The visit will focus on the draft treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ) ... The idea of a CANWFZ was originally launched at the summit meeting of the Presidents of the Five Central Asian states held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, through the Almaty Declaration of February 28, 1997. In support of this initiative, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolutions 52/38 S (December 9, 1997) 53/77 A (December 4, 1998) and 55/33 W (November 20, 2000) which requested the Secretary-General to provide assistance to the Central Asian States in the elaboration of an agreement... In response to those resolutions, the Department for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, has extended its assistance to the Five States inter alia by creating a United Nations-sponsored group and providing substantive and technical advice to the Central Asian countries."

Speaking in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on August 24, Dhanapala told reporters: "We in the United Nations think that the present historical moment is an opportune one to conclude the treaty in order to signal the stability, the unity and prospects for the future of this Central Asian region..."

Reports: Under-Secretary-General to visit Central Asia for talks on nuclear-weapon-free zone, UN Press Release DC/2837, August 12; C. Asia nuke pact may be ready soon, Associated Press, August 24; Negotiations on Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaty concluded, UN Press Release DC/2842, September 30.

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© 2002 The Acronym Institute.