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DISARMAMENT: Norway Seeks a New Push
By Ramesh Jaura
OSLO, Apr 16 (IPS) - Norway's foreign affairs minister Jonas Gahr Støre has called for giving new
priority to nuclear disarmament that has been assigned to oblivion since the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall not only brought to an end the division of
Berlin but also paved the way for unification of Germany and the end of the
Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
"Good governance and human rights took priority over disarmament because
the nuclear threat was perceived as having disappeared," the minister told
IPS.
"With the new U.S. Administration there is a momentum to move the
disarmament process forward," Støre said. "It is not often you see a U.S.
President calling for steps to reach a world free of nuclear weapons."
The world is at a crossroads now, he said. On the one hand nuclear
disarmament needs are pressing because the non-proliferation challenges
are compelling. On the other hand opportunities and possibilities are
perhaps greater than they have been for a decade, Støre said.
Earlier, speaking at the opening of an exhibition on nuclear abolition Apr. 15
in Oslo's city hall, Støre said his country would exert all its influence to move
nuclear disarmament to centre stage.
Together with Germany, Norway raised this at the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO) summit earlier this month in Strasbourg (France) and
Kehl (Germany), Støre told IPS. The NATO declaration of Apr. 4 emphasises
that "arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation" will continue to
make an important contribution to peace, security, and stability.
NATO allies reaffirmed that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
remains important and that they will contribute constructively to achieving a
successful outcome of the 2010 NPT review conference.
Opening the exhibition titled 'From a culture of violence to a culture of
peace: transforming the human spirit', Norway's former prime minister Kjell
Magne Bondevik said: "We must never forget that the NPT does not give the
five nuclear weapon states (Britain, France, Russia, the U.S. and China) the
right to retain their special status indefinitely."
Bondevik said a five-state summit for nuclear disarmament with the
participation of the UN Secretary-General should be convened regularly to
draw up a roadmap of specific measures to fulfil their disarmament
obligations.
"Non-proliferation and disarmament must only be steps towards the only
meaningful goal - a world free of nuclear weapons," he said.
Bondevik was prime minister 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making
him the Nordic country's longest serving non-Socialist prime minister since
World War II. In January 2006 he founded the Oslo Centre for Peace and
Human Rights that he has been heading since.
Bondevik said it was promising that there were signals of new talks between
the U.S. and Russia - which between them account for 95 percent of the
world's nuclear arsenal - on a new legally binding agreement to replace
START 1 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) that expires in December this
year.
Bondevik's remarks were in line with those of Daisaku Ikeda, president of the
Tokyo-based Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International (SGI) that has
members in 192 countries and territories.
SGI, which organised the exhibition together with five leading Norwegian civil
society organisations, considers the NPT review conference next year crucial
to nuclear disarmament as a first step towards nuclear abolition.
The exhibition that is open until Apr. 22 is supported by No to Nuclear
Weapons (NTA), Norwegian Physicians Against Nuclear Weapons (NLA)
affiliated with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War,
the Norwegian Pugwash Committee, the Norwegian Atlantic Community
(NAC) and the United Association of Norway.
SGI vice-president Hiromasa Ikeda said the exhibition was intended to "set
out the broad vision of a culture of peace, predicated on the concept of
human security, and to encourage people to take action towards its
realisation."
"The current shift towards nuclear abolition in the international political
arena, where such a vision has so far been seen as unrealistic, provides a
vital opportunity," SGI office of peace affairs executive director Hirotsugu
Terasaki told IPS.
Good faith efforts on the part of the nuclear weapon states are essential if
confidence in the NPT is to be restored, former Norwegian prime minister
Bondevik told IPS. "Only then will it be possible to win the trust of countries
outside the NPT regime and obtain commitments on freezing and
dismantling nuclear weapons development programmes."
The current financial crisis may facilitate the disarmament process, said
Steffen Kongstad, director-general at Norway's foreign affairs ministry.
"The public may start questioning the spending of billions of dollars to
maintain a fleet of weapons which is envisioned never to be used," Kongstad
told a seminar accompanying the exhibition.
"The mere existence of these weapons represents in itself severe security
challenges. One cannot distinguish between good or bad nuclear weapons,"
he said.
Kongstad cautioned against complacency despite some helpful signs from
the U.S. and Russia. "We know that the nuclear lobby is still strong in key
countries. We must also recognise that there are other actors than the U.S. in
the game."
Political pressure from voters, the civil society and academics is essential in
order to achieve tangible results, he said. This worked with the Mine Ban
Convention in 1997 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions last year.
(END/2009)
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