A British Government minister has said that any plans by the United States to set up a "Star Wars"-like anti-missile defence system should not violate already existing international agreements. The Foreign Office Minister, Peter Hain, was speaking at the start of a month long conference in New York reviewing nuclear non-proliferation. It is thought the US might want to site an early warning station in Britain, if it goes ahead with the project. Russia is strongly opposed, it says that such a missile defence would require modifications to a previous agreement, the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
The United Nations Secretary-General has said that the threat of nuclear war remains a very real, and very terrifying, possibility. Kofi Annan was speaking at the start of a month long conference on nuclear non-proliferation in New York. Although he avoided mentioning the United States by name, Mr Annan criticised plans to develop a "Star Wars"-type National Missile Defence, which, he said, could lead to a new arms race.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, spoke at the opening of the meeting today. It is held every five years, to review the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Ireland played a role in creating during the 1960s. During the month-long conference there will be pressure for action by countries with nuclear weapons, but progress is expected to be painfully slow.
Sean Lemass spoke at the UN in New York in during the 1960s. These years saw the world teeter on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was also a time when Ireland was very active at the United Nations on disarmament, it was an Irish resolution here which paved the way for what became the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The 1968 treaty was supposed to stop to spread of nuclear weapons, those countries without the bomb agreed not to develop it. In return, the five official nuclear powers were supposed to start genuine talks on disarmament.
So much has happened since then, but the bomb is still with us. At the review conference getting underway in New York, the official nuclear powers are under pressure to take seriously this commitment to negotiate a ban on nuclear weapons. Not much progress is expected. One positive move has been the Russian parliament's approval of the Start-2 nuclear arms reduction treaty earlier this month, seven years after it was signed with the US. This would see each side's strategic nuclear arsenal go from about 6000, to 3,500, in 7 years' time. Talks should begin soon on a further treaty, called Start-3. This could even halve the number again. That is just a fraction of the number of strategic nuclear weapons held during the cold war, but it is still enough to destroy each other many times over.
One of the problems with the Non-Proliferation Treaty is that some of the countries like who have not signed it are forging ahead, like Israel, which has its own nuclear arsenal. India and Pakistan both tested nuclear bombs two years ago. There have been some successes. Since the last review conference of this treaty five years ago, several more countries have signed up, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina all agreed to renounce nuclear weapons. But the log-jam has not been broken.
