With just five days left in a month-long conference, diplomats from more than 180 nations faced an uphill challenge yesterday as they searched for agreement on concrete ways to toughen treaty controls on the spread of nuclear arms.
It's a week when the need for tightening may become more apparent, as European negotiators try to salvage talks with Iran over suspending its nuclear program, which has bombmaking potential, and as North Korea considers its next move in the slow-motion international showdown over its weapons plans.
For almost three weeks, the UN conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a twice-a-decade event, has been bogged down in bickering over the agenda. That backroom squabble left delegations little time for substantive negotiation before Friday's closing session.
"It's an opportunity we cannot afford to squander," said disarmament advocate Daryl Kimball, of the Washington-based Arms Control Association. But at a consensus gathering where agreement must be unanimous, the gaps between nations looked too wide to produce major arms-control initiatives.
Under the 1970 treaty, 183 nations renounce nuclear arms forever, in exchange for a pledge by five nuclear-weapon states -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China -- to move toward disarmament. The nonweapon states, meanwhile, are guaranteed access to peaceful nuclear technology.
North Korea announced its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003 and claims to have built nuclear bombs -- all without penalty under the nonproliferation pact. Many here want the conference to endorse measures making it more difficult to exit the treaty, and threatening sanctions against any who do.
Many delegations also favor action to prevent future Irans. The Tehran government, saying it's pursuing civilian nuclear energy, obtained uranium-enrichment equipment that can produce both fuel for power plants and material for atom bombs. Washington contends the Iranians have weapons plans.
Experts now propose limiting access to such fuel technology, despite the treaty guarantee, and possibly bringing all such production under international control.
Consensus on these proposals is unlikely, however, without concessions by the nuclear-weapons states -- particularly the US and France -- on the other treaty "pillar," disarmament.
Those without the doomsday arms contend that those with them are moving too slowly toward eliminating the weapons, and point to Bush administration proposals for modernizing the US nuclear arsenal. A congressional committee last week approved US$29 million to study new nuclear warheads.
Even allies, such as South Korea, question the American moves and want a conference final document to pressure the nuclear powers.
"We expect deeper cuts and further engagements by nuclear-weapon states," Seoul's delegate Park In-kook told a conference committee on Thursday.
But the Americans showed no sign of bending, insisting that Iran and North Korea must be the priority here.
Linking action on such cases with greater progress toward disarmament is "dangerous in the extreme," because it tends to excuse nuclear proliferation, US Ambassador Jackie Sanders told the same committee the following day.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS