ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday demanded reforms in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) besides making it transparent and non-discriminatory.

The recommendations came at the end of the two-day seminar on “NPT review conference and future of the non-proliferation regime” organised by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI).

The seminar was organised to discuss the reasons behind the failure of the 2015 NPT review conference at the UN headquarters due to the opposition by the US, UK and Canada to a proposed conference on making a nuke-free zone in Middle East and differences over disarmament.

“Nonproliferation needs to become efficient, effective and non-discriminatory. There is a need for trust, transparency and institutional reforms,” said a statement issued at the conclusion of the seminar.

Speakers at seminar say non-proliferation needs to become efficient, effective and non-discriminatory

“The NPT has been significantly weakened because of exceptions given to India. Moreover, to build a consensus in non-proliferation regime, the US needs to stop facilitating Israel otherwise the future of NPT is bleak.”

Specific references were made to the violations of Article I and II of the NPT by the Indo-US nuclear deal.

It was stated that Article IV provided for the provision of equal opportunities for exploiting nuclear energy for peaceful use but again that was not happening.

“The states suspected to use their peaceful technology for military purposes are privileged to receive nuclear technology for nuclear weapon states (a reference to exceptions being given to India), whereas other in genuine need of energy were being denied the opportunity,” SVI president Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said while reading out the recommendations.

Shaukat Hassan, former director disarmament and safeguards at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in his presentation on India specific safeguards said it changed the dynamics of the non-proliferation regime by extending privileges of nuclear weapon state to a non-NPT state.

Khalid Iqbal of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute mentioned the similarities in the Indian and Pakistani candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group. He said any criterion-based expansion of the group would see the two neighbours together joining the group. However, he warned of serious implications if India was allowed into the group while keeping Pakistan out.

Such a thing would “embolden India to significantly expand its nuclear weapons arsenal, turn down any meaningful disarmament/arms control offers from Pakistan, and use negative vote to block Pakistan’s entry and other nuclear interests,” he maintained.

Executive director Centre for International Strategic Studies Sarwar Naqvi in his lecture on nuclear security summit process said: “The global nature of the threat posed by nuclear terrorism demands broad international action of which multilateral joint statements can, and should, be a key part.”

He suggested fixing the implementation timeframe for the step to be announced in future statements instead of keeping them open ended. Mr Naqvi said the NSS process made “a positive contribution to global security.”

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2015

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