A joint statement from five global leadership networks:

With near universal membership, the NPT remains the indispensable central pillar of a norm-based global nuclear order, aimed at preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons and helping progressively to reduce their numbers and roles in national security doctrines while facilitating safe and peaceful uses of nuclear power. For these reasons, failure at this Review Conference must be avoided.

In August this year, the world will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. This reminder of the consequences of nuclear weapons use should be powerful motivation for all NPT States Parties to actively pursue a practical agenda for success at the Review Conference and take urgent action on the following steps.

 

STEPS TOWARDS A SAFER WORLD TO BE ADVANCED DURING THE REVIEW CONFERENCE

• We note the April 2 framework agreement on key parameters of a negotiated settlement on Iran’s nuclear program. The E3+3 group and Iran should make clear their commitment to reach a final deal by June 30. We call on Iran to cooperate fully with the IAEA and promptly ratify the Additional Protocol. The capacity of the Agency to close the file on possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, and to monitor Iran’s compliance with the terms of an agreement, will be crucial for an agreement’s long-term success.

• All states whose signature and/or ratification is necessary to bring the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force should act as soon as possible, without awaiting such action by any other State Party, and in the meantime maintain a moratorium on all nuclear tests.

• All nuclear armed states should narrow the conditions for use of nuclear weapons, declare that the sole purpose of their nuclear weapons is to deter the threat and use of nuclear weapons by others, and re-confirm and strengthen their negative security assurances to non-nuclear weapon states.

• Russia should act upon President Putin’s public statement supporting continued talks to reduce nuclear arsenals, and the United States should remain open to such talks. All nuclear armed states should pursue voluntary caps at or reductions below their current levels, and all States Parties must respect their NPT obligations in planning the future of their nuclear forces.

• The NPT Review Conference is not the forum for negotiating potentially binding new legal instruments. Nevertheless it is a legitimate place for debating elements of a legal path towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) should be part of such debate.

• Following the welcome decision of the United States and United Kingdom to participate in the 2014 Vienna Conference on the HINW, we urge the continuation of this dialogue and call on all remaining NWS to declare in New York that they will engage constructively on this initiative in the future.

With regard to the Middle East WMD Free Zone: We are concerned about the delay in convening a Conference on a Middle East WMD Free Zone and urge participants in New York not to use this delay to in any way derail the Review Conference. We call for:

• All Parties to support the convening of the WMD Free Zone Conference as a priority for the next review cycle, thereby confirming the paramount importance of creating a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East for global security.

With regard to nuclear security: Securing nuclear weapons-usable material around the world is not only vital for our immediate security but a crucial early step in disarmament and a necessity for non-proliferation. We therefore call on all NPT States Parties to:

• In the case of those that possess weapons-usable nuclear materials that are military materials (i.e., outside civilian programs), to take steps to strengthen the security of those nuclear materials and to build international confidence in their security.

• Minimize stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium, convert reactors from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) fueled, and support efforts to use non-HEU technologies for the production of radioisotopes.

From the European Leadership Network

1. Fatmir Mediu, former Defence Minister

2. Wolfgang Petritsch, former EU Special Envoy to Kosovo and former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

3. Dr. Solomon Passy, former Foreign Minister

4. Davor Božinović, former Minister of Defence

6. Prof. Ivo Šlaus, former member of parliament and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee

7. Jan Kavan, former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

8. Amb. Jaakko Blomberg, former Under- Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

France:

11. General (Ret.) Bernard Norlain, former Air Defence Commander and Air Combat Commander in the French Air Force

13. Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister

14. Tedo Japaridze, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

15. Katja Keul, member of the German Bundestag and Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non- proliferation

17. General (Ret.) Klaus Naumann, former Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, Former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

19. Uta Zapf, former member of the Bundestag & Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non- proliferation

20. János Martonyi, former Minister for Foreign Affairs

21. Amb. Giancarlo Aragona, former Secretary General of OSCE, and Italian rep to the Albright Group for the drafting of NATO’s “New Strategic Concept”

23. Prof. Francesco Calogero, former Secretary General of Pugwash

25. Giorgio La Malfa, former Minister of European Affairs

27. Amb. Carlo Trezza, Member of the Advisory Board of the UN Secretary General for Disarmament Matters and Chairman of the Missile Technology Control Regime

28. Prof. Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, former Deputy Foreign Minister

Norway:

31. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister

Poland:

Portugal:

Russia:

36. Anatoli Diakov, Director at Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

38. Dmitry Polikanov, Vice-President at PIR- Centre and former Deputy Head of the “United Russia” Central Committee

40. Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Management Board, Institute of Contemporary Development (ICD)

41. Goran Svilanovic, Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities

42. Dr. Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister and former Senior Vice President of the World Bank

43. Dr. Hans Blix, former Director General of the IAEA; Former Foreign Minister

45. Henrik Salander, former Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, Secretary-General of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission

46. Hikmet Çetin, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

48. Faruk Loğoğlu, former Ambassador to the US and currently a member of The Grand National Assembly of Turkey

Ukraine:

United Kingdom:

52. Lord Browne of Ladyton (Des Browne), former British Defence Secretary

54. Lord Hannay of Chiswick (David Hannay), former Ambassador to the EU and to the UN; current Chair of UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security

55. Sir Nick Harvey, Member of Parliament and former Minister of State for the Armed Forces

57. Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (John Kerr), former Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service

59. General Sir John McColl, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR)

61. Lord David Ramsbotham, Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords

63. Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, former British Defence Secretary and former Foreign Secretary

65. Admiral the Lord West of Spithead (Alan West), former First Sea Lord of the British Navy

Argentina:

68. Dr. José Horacio Jaunarena, former Minister of Defense

70. Prof. Ricardo López Murphy, former Minister of Defense

Chile:

Colombia:

Ecuador:

Mexico:

Uruguay:

Australia:

78. Prof. Robert Hill AC, former Defence Minister of Australia

China:

81. Pan Zhenqiang, Maj.Gen (ret.), former Director, Institute of Strategic Studies, National Defence University

82. Prof. P.R. Chari, former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence

84. Dr. C. Raja Mohan, Head of Strategic Studies, Observer Research Foundation

86. Air Chief Marshal Shashi Tyagi (India), (Ret); Former Chief of the Indian Air Force

87. Dr. Nur Hassan Wirajuda, former Foreign Minister

Japan:

90. Yoriko Kawaguchi, former Foreign Minister

Malaysia:

New Zealand:

94. Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister

95. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University

Philippines:

Republic of Korea:

99. Han Sung-Joo, former Foreign Minister

101. Prof. Song Minsoon, former Foreign Minister

102. Amb.KishoreMahbubani,former Ambassador to the United Nations; Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

103. Jayantha Dhanapala, former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament

104. Dr.Surin Pitsuwan, former Foreign Minister and Former Secretary-General of ASEAN

105. Amb.Ton Nu ThiNinh, former Ambassador to the European Union

From the Nuclear Security Leadership Council

106. Dr.Graham Allison,Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

108. James Cartwright, Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

110. Jan Lodal, Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council of the United States and Chairman, Lodal and Company

112. Sam Nunn, Co-Chairman and CEO, NTI; former United States Senator

114. Joan Rohlfing, President and COO, NTI; former Senior Adviser for National Security to the U.S. Secretary of Energy

 

Image: U.S. Mission Geneva, Eric Bridiers.