U.A.E.’s Permanent UN Representative Confirms Commitment to Peaceful Nuclear Energy and Non-Proliferation

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Ahmed Al-Jarman Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations before the General Debate of the First Committee on “Disarmament and International Security” 65th Session of the General Assembly New York, 4 October, 2010

Mr. Chairman, At the outset, I wish to express my country’s support for the statement given by the representative of Indonesia on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement regarding the items on the agenda of this committee.

Mr. Chairman, The meetings of the current session of the First Committee are held in a different disarmament environment, an optimistic environment which is encouraged by the positive political positions expressed recently by some nuclear states, namely the United States of America and Russia, regarding reducing their countries’ dependence on strategic arsenals. These positive positions have stimulated international negotiations on disarmament issues, especially the negotiations which took place in the last Review Conference of the NPT, and the negotiations of the recent ministerial meetings held on the sidelines of the current session of the General Assembly, particularly the Fifth Ministerial Meeting to Support the CTBT, and the Ministerial Meeting on Strengthening the Programme of Work of the Conference on Disarmament.

Mr. Chairman, The United Arab Emirates, which follows a clear national policy embodied in its accession to the Non-proliferation Treaty in 1995 and ratification of the CTBT in 2000, and its continued political commitment to support all multilateral diplomatic efforts aimed at building confidence in areas of disarmament and non-proliferation with a view to enhancing the universality of all treaties on the non-proliferation of all types of weapons of mass destruction, wishes to express its concern over the insistence of some parties on promoting nuclear deterrence policies and other policies for developing weapons of mass destruction.

In this context, and while we look forward to achieving a peaceful and permanent settlement for the nuclear programs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to prevent further tensions and confrontations, we welcome the decision taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its last session, which calls for the application of its safeguards at the Middle East. We also call for maximizing international efforts aimed at subjecting all Israeli nuclear facilities to the supervision of IAEA and exerting pressure on Israel to accede to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty like all other states in the region, in accordance with the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions which call for establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, including the decision issued by the Sixth Review Conference of the NPT in year 2000. In this regard, we look forward to holding a conference aiming at making the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons by 2012, as agreed upon in the final document of the last Review Conference.

We believe that regional and international collective security requires advancing negotiations among nuclear states and adopting comprehensive and balanced policies on confidence-building. Policies which are capable of halting improvement and development of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, reducing and eventually eliminating these weapons, and changing its uses to peaceful purposes within a specific timeframe in accordance with Article 6 of the NPT. In this connection, we also call for developing a binding international instrument that provides the necessary safeguards for the non-use of existing nuclear arsenals or using them to threaten other non-nuclear states.

In this regard, we wish to reaffirm our conviction about the need to enhance the universality and inclusiveness of disarmament treaties, particularly those relating to disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, which require from non parties to be committed to the goals of these treaties. In this connection, we support the call made by the Secretary-General few days ago for continuing efforts aimed at bringing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force by 2012.

Mr. Chairman, The UAE wishes to express its satisfaction at the positive atmosphere prevailed during the recent international negotiations on revitalizing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and urges all states to exhibit the necessary flexibility and political will in order to develop an integrated agenda for this conference that covers all aspects of disarmament issues, especially nuclear disarmament.

We also reaffirm the right of developing countries to engage in research, production and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in accordance with the limits and safeguards of the IAEA. We also urge the nuclear states to respond to the scientific and technological needs of developing countries in order to enable them to continue their development activities.

In this framework, we emphasize that the UAE will continue to take more concrete steps towards developing a model program for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to meet its growing energy requirements in the future, under the safeguards and supervision of the IAEA, and based on the highest standards of transparency, nuclear safety and non-proliferation. This program will be implemented in full cooperation with the Agency and other friendly and responsible states which have experience in this field in order to reduce international fears on non-proliferation, and to affirm the right of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which should be utilized only by adhering to highly transparent, responsible and safe standards.

Finally, we hope our deliberations in this committee will lead to a consensus that contributes to strengthening and developing the work of this committee and realizing our peoples’ aspirations towards achieving security, peace, stability and development at regional and international levels.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Read the accompanying article on WAM: http://ow.ly/2OTHw