EU Statement in Subsidiary Body 2 on Prevention of Nuclear War, including all related matters, Conference on Disarmament
Mr. Coordinator,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro* and Albania*, the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this statement.
We would like to commend your leadership of this subsidiary body and we wish you success.
The EU and its Member States reiterate their longstanding support for an immediate commencement and early conclusion of the negotiation in the Conference on Disarmament of a Treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and we support starting such negotiations in accordance with the document CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein.
Positive momentum has already been created in the CD under the leadership of Germany facilitating the discussions in the Way Ahead Working Group on FMCT, amongst others, and the Netherlands, who coordinated the work in Subsidiary Body 2 in 2018. The in-depth technical discussions in Subsidiary Body 2 and its consensual report showed converging views on several issues and signalled that there was a collective will to look for commonalities. We should further build on this work in order to start negotiations. In this respect, we agree with the recommendation of the High Level Group that further expert work could be useful in particular on the various verification models to determine how they might work in practice, and the resource implications of the possible verification and institutional models.
We will elaborate on this issue in more detail later on in the course of the discussion of this subsidiary body.
Mr. Coordinator,
The discussions at this subsidiary body come at a timely but deeply worrying moment. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing a tragic loss of life and immense human suffering. Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine grossly violates international law and the UN Charter, and undermines international peace and security.
In the same vein, the EU also strongly condemns threats by president Putin of using nuclear force in this war. These threats are provocative, dangerous, escalatory and entirely unacceptable. At the beginning of this year, the leaders of all five Nuclear Weapons States committed to the prevention of nuclear war and avoiding arms races and reaffirmed, that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. We deplore that Russia`s threatening statements and raising of nuclear alert levels undermines the credibility of its commitment to the January 2022 declaration. President Putin is manufacturing threats that do not exist in order to justify his further aggression. This is reckless behaviour. The EU calls on Russia to immediately de-alert its nuclear forces.
Moreover, the occupation by Russian armed forces of the Chornobyl and Zaporozhzhya nuclear power plants and Russia’s military operations conducted in the vicinity of nuclear facilities in Ukraine add to the gravity of the situation. The EU fully support the actions by IAEA General Director R. Grossi in this field. We recall that in 2009, the IAEA General Conference unanimously adopted decision GC(53)/DEC/13 stating that “any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the UN Charter, international law and the Statute of the Agency”.
The use of explosive weapons in the vicinity of nuclear facilities represents unprecedented danger of a nuclear accident, incident or other radiological emergency, risking the lives of people living in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries and the international community as a whole. The EU condemns these irresponsible acts.
Against the backdrop of these irresponsible acts and a deteriorating international security environment, which faces persistent proliferation crises and challenges, there is broadening concern about increased risks. The EU notes the very severe consequences associated with nuclear weapons use and emphasises that all States share the responsibility to prevent such an occurrence from happening. More and more States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) recognize, as a matter of priority, the need for concrete and effective measures to reduce strategic and nuclear risks.
Given the heightened tensions, we must be careful not to enter the path of a new arms race that would offset the significant reductions achieved after the end of the Cold War. We encourage initiatives that can contribute to dialogue, confidence-building, transparency, verification activities, reporting and risk reduction, including the broad range of nuclear and strategic risk reduction measures, which are urgently required in the current context.
All States, in particular nuclear weapon States and other States possessing nuclear weapons should engage in such efforts, by elaborating inter alia on measures to prevent the use of nuclear weapons, whether by intension, misunderstanding, miscalculation or accident.
Mr. Coordinator,
Risk reduction measures are not a replacement for concrete measures on nuclear disarmament. They should be considered as a pathway to increase confidence within the international security environment and an important contribution to facilitate further steps in nuclear disarmament moving towards a world without nuclear weapons, in accordance with Article VI of the NPT. A comprehensive approach to nuclear and strategic risk reduction is necessary since all States have a shared interest in risk reduction. As such, risk reduction measures should comprise both bilateral and multilateral risk reduction measures amongst NWS as well as regional-based and multilateral approaches including NNWS. The only way to eliminate the risk is to fully comply with the NPT provisions in their entirety.
In this regard, the EU strongly supports all three pillars of the NPT and will continue to promote comprehensive, balanced and substantive full implementation of the 2010 Review Conference Action Plan. We stress the need to implement all obligations under the NPT, and commitments during previous Review Conferences, including the need for concrete progress towards the full implementation of Article VI, with the ultimate goal of total elimination of nuclear weapons. We are resolved to seek a safer and more secure world for all in accordance with the goals of the Treaty in a way that promotes international stability, peace and security. We welcome the engagement by EU Member States to mobilize political will and promote implementation of the goals of the NPT through various initiatives during the current review cycle such as the Stockholm Initiative.
Several strategic and nuclear risk reduction measures have been agreed to in the NPT context, most notably in Action 5 of the 2010 NPT Action Plan and a broad range of further measures have been proposed in several initiatives. Given the heightened risks, the EU encourage further work towards the elaboration of practical strategic and nuclear risk reduction measures, which can contribute to alleviating tensions and building the necessary trust and confidence, such as transparency and dialogue on nuclear doctrines and postures, military-to-military dialogues, hotline agreements among nuclear weapon possessors, “accident measure” agreements, and notification exercises, as well as missile launch notification and other data exchange agreements. All States, in particular nuclear weapon States and other States possessing nuclear weapons should engage in such efforts.
Thank you Mr. Coordinator
* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.