At U.N., Obama to Push for New Nuclear Weapons Treaty

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

At U.N., Obama to Push for New Nuclear Weapons Treaty

By Mary Beth Sheridan and Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 24, 2009

President Obama will use the forum of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to press his efforts to slow the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce global stockpiles.

Diplomats have finished negotiating a Security Council resolution that affirms many of the steps Obama plans to pursue as part of his vision for an eventual "world without nuclear weapons." They include a new worldwide treaty halting production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium and the strengthening of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has controlled the spread of nuclear weapons for decades but now is in danger of fraying.

The session of the Security Council, whose rotating chair is held this month by the United States, will occur alongside a two-day U.N. conference that will strongly push for a worldwide ban on nuclear tests, officials said. For the first time in a decade, a U.S. delegation will attend the biennial U.N. session on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been ratified by 181 countries but lacks the support of nine critical governments, including several declared and undeclared nuclear powers. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is leading the delegation, is expected to commit the U.S. government to trying to ratify the treaty, which was defeated in the U.S. Senate in 1999.


Obama's agenda marks a sharp departure from the policies of President George W. Bush, who was generally skeptical of the reliability and value of arms-control treaties. Obama has said the new approach is necessary because rogue states and terrorists are trying to acquire nuclear bombs, and the spread of nuclear technology could set off arms races in volatile regions such as the Middle East.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/23/AR2009092304471.html?hpid=topnews

[timeforpeace]

1. Unilateral disarmament is the only way. Set a good example, China and Russia will follow. Iran too.

[Overseas]

2. K&R /eom