BASIC PRESS RELEASE

17 MAY 2005

Time for the US and UK to make a breakthrough at the conference on nuclear weapons in New York

The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2005 Review Conference is now into its third week of deliberations at the United Nations in New York and national delegates are showing every sign of being unable to agree how to make substantive progress by its close next week, warns the British American Security Information Council (BASIC).

The future of the NPT depends on compliance of the delicate balance of rights and obligations enshrined in the Treaty. While the US and UK would rather castigate others for non-compliance, for their own part, the US and UK delegations have, so far, failed to:

set out a plan or timetable to further reduce and eliminate their nuclear arsenals
establish a diminished role for nuclear weapons in their national security policies
agree legally binding assurances that non-nuclear weapon states will not be targeted with nuclear weapons

as required by the Final Document of the 2000 NPT Review Conference.

Moreover, the US and UK governments renewed their Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) - a special arrangement that permits the transatlantic exchange of nuclear information, technology and material – for a further 10 years in December last year, without any congressional or parliamentary scrutiny. In their authoritative legal opinion of July 2004, Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin of Matrix Chambers concluded, "it is strongly arguable that the renewal of the Mutual Defence Agreement is in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty".

They advise that the NPT, which is the fundamental international legal instrument covering nuclear weapons, binding on 188 states, takes precedence over the MDA under international law. The MDA is directed towards "improving the UK's state of training and operational readiness ... [and] atomic weapon design, development or fabrication capability". But Article I of the NPT forbids the transfer of nuclear weapons or devices, and Article VI requires all parties to pursue nuclear disarmament.

Renewing the MDA paves the way for replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system, options for which are already being considered. On June 14, 2004, President Bush said, "It is in our interest to continue to assist [the United Kingdom] in maintaining a credible nuclear force". But it is in no one’s interests for the nuclear weapons states to pursue policies that encourage and give justification to other countries’ attempts to acquire them.

"In order to make a breakthrough on both non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament issues and save the NPT, we recommend that the US and the UK publicly annul the Mutual Defence Agreement and state, unequivocally, that they will not conduct research into new nuclear warheads and delivery systems", said BASIC Director Dr Ian Davis.

The full text of the legal opinion can be found at: http://www.basicint.org/nuclear/MDAlegal.htm

BASIC's report on the MDA can be found at: http://www.basicint.org/nuclear/MDAReport.pdf

The original MDA, entitled ‘Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for Cooperation on the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defense Purposes’, was originally agreed on July 3, 1958. The text is available at: http://www.basicint.org/nuclear/NPT/2004pc/1958MDA.htm

One of the conclusions from the Peacerights Inquiry into the Legality of Nuclear Weapons in November 2004 (page 46), in regard to NPT Article VI obligations, was that the UK has not pursued negotiations, in good faith, on nuclear disarmament. On the contrary, a renewed MDA implies a continuation and enhancement of the UK's nuclear programme rather than discontinuation, as required: http://www.peacerights.org/documents/final%20final%20report.pdf

Please call Nigel Chamberlain on +44 (0)20 7324 4684 for further details.