Yesterday’s announcement that the government would stick to a limit of 225 nuclear warheads has been rightly welcomed by BASIC (the British American Security Information Council) as a next step in transparency and disarmament.
Mary Riddell references BASIC in her commentary. Read more:
The new British government\’s announcement today of a total limit of 225 nuclear warheads is to be welcomed as a next step in the transparency and disarmament process, said Paul Ingram, Executive Director of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC).
Day 17: The NPT Review Conference president, Libran Cabactulan, has moved towards the endgame by submitting a draft final document which contains both a treaty review and a forward-looking action plan covering all three pillars of the treaty (disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy).
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director, backed Egypt's proposals for a Middle East international conference to work towards a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone at a side event on the margins of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
The May 21 event was hosted by Greenpeace whose Israeli representative, Sharon Dolev, described how she has been trying to raise awareness for nuclear disarmament in Israel, where discussion of that country's presumed nuclear arsenal of up to 200 weapons remains taboo.
Day 14: There is widespread dismay at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference where the latest draft on the treaty's disarmament pillar has excised all references to a timetable for the nuclear weapons states to disarm.
The unveiling of the Iran sanctions resolution “has changed the atmosphere here”, noted Anne Penketh who is monitoring the view. The conference, she noted, “has been on a knife-edge from the get-go and I think it still is”.
The Royal United Services Institute suggested cut of £11bn by keeping the Trident submarines in harbour quoted BASIC's information.
Read more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/20/hague-shreds-european-union-cameron
Day 13: Russia has rejected a proposal from Germany to include a call for the “irreversible reduction and elimination” of US and Russian tactical weapons in a draft action plan of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Treaty Conference.
The exchange took place during a closed-door session which was discussing the disarmament pillar of the NPT.