| 
Today, on October 15, the Congress of the European Liberals
and Democrats party, ELDR, (Helsinki, October 14-15) adopted
resolution Nuclear Disarmament and Arms Control – Using the
New Momentum in the Debate for a “Global Zero” motioned jointly
by the German FDP party and YABLOKO.
“ELDR perceives nuclear disarmament and arms control as a
corner stone of the global security architecture. ELDR explicitly
commits itself to the establishment of a world free of nuclear
and other weapons of mass destruction. However, ELDR wants
the progress in the current debate to have an impact on conventional
disarmament,” runs the resolution.
The key points of the resolution are as follows:
- ELDR calls for explicit measures for nuclear disarmament,
strengthening of non-proliferation, and peaceful use of nuclear
energy;
- welcomes the commitment of both the United States of America
and other nuclear powers not to threat states or to use nuclear
weapons against states that do not possess nuclear weapons
and observe their obligations by the Non-Proliferation Treaty;
- welcomes the signature of the new START treaty and its
protocol by Presidents of the US and Russia;
- appeals to the United States of America to ratify the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) following other NATO members;
- urges NATO member states to include the commitment to a
world free of nuclear weapons and the reduction of the role
of all kinds of nuclear weapons in the new strategic concept
of NATO;
- requests NATO member states to provide in the new strategy
a stronger role for NATO in the areas of arms control, disarmament
and non-proliferation;
appreciates the recently initiated discussion on the question
of future arrangements of nuclear participation and the declining
significance of all kinds of nuclear weapons in future NATO
strategy.
- requests the international community to develop a regulation
about the verifiable production stop of weapons-capable nuclear
material;
- urges the international community for joint political efforts
to settle the conflict caused by the nuclear programmes of
North Korea and Iran;
- emphasizes the significance to create nuclear-free zones
and territories free of weapons of mass destruction, for example
in the Middle East as proposed in the 2010 NPT action plan;
- requests in line with nuclear disarmament bold steps to
strengthen the conventional arms control in Europe with regard
to protecting and updating the Conventional Forces in Europe
Treaty;
- welcomes the ban on cluster munitions.
Yesterday on October 14, YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
representing the party at the ELDR Congress met with Ambassador
of Russia in Finland Alexander Rumyantsev for discussion of
some issues of Russia-Finland relations. In addition, Mitrokhin
and Rumyantsev (who had previously headed the Russian Ministry
for Atomic Energy in 2001-2005) discussed the problems of
the nuclear energy sector.
See also:
European liberals’
Congress discusses relations between Russia and EU. Press
Release, October 14, 2010.
YABLOKO
and the European Liberal Family
Russia-EU
Relations
YABLOKO
for Nuclear Safety
Arms
Control
| 