U.S. says “No” to Nuclear Weapons Convention
On March 30, 2004, David Ruppe reported on the Global Security Newswire that:
“WASHINGTON — Facing apparent foreign criticism that U.S. policies are undermining global nuclear nonproliferation efforts, a senior U.S. diplomat last week said that a newly emerged “nexus” of terrorism and illicit WMD development argues for “incremental,” unregimented nuclear disarmament.
“Events of the past few years have introduced a new and destabilizing unpredictability into world affairs,” Ambassador Jackie Sanders, the senior U.S. representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said in a speech Thursday to the conference.
The new threat “poses a risk to the very pillars of civilization,” Sanders said.
She added, “These developments do not mean the nuclear disarmament process needs to stop. … But it illustrates the obvious point that disarmament of any type does not take place in an international security vacuum and reinforces the conclusion that sweeping, unfocused approaches to disarmament such as a nuclear weapons convention or setting timetables are illusory and will not work … .”
