EWI Teams Up With World Leaders, Including U.N. Secretary-General, to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

Posted By: Wei Zhu

Date: October 24, 2008

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered a five-point proposal, which included an enforceable international convention against nuclear weapons, for concrete measures to end the global logjam on weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Ban delivered the proposal at an EastWest Institute event at U.N. headquarters. The event also included Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and leaders from China, the E.U., India, Japan, Pakistan, and the U.S.

Mr. Ban urged:

  1. All states to negotiate an international nuclear weapons convention, backed by a strong system of verification;
    2.  
  2. The U.N. Security Council to discuss security assurances with non-nuclear states;
  3. The international community to pursue institutionalization of nuclear treaties, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;
  4. Nuclear states to be more transparent about the sizes of their arsenals, stocks of fissile material and specific disarmament achievements;
  5. All states to pursue complementary materials, including the elimination of other types of WMD.

President of the EastWest Institute, John Edwin Mroz, applauded the Secretary-General’s initiative and praised his five points as a yardstick for international nonproliferation efforts.

“We are launching a major effort to build a consensus between the west and the east on the proliferation of WMD and disarmament,” said Mroz. “That’s what this inaugural event was all about. The EastWest Institute will hold itself to the Secretary-General’s benchmarks.”

Event attendees emphasized an urgent need for renewed nonproliferation and disarmament efforts.

“We need concrete action,” said Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei. “The world cannot afford 27,000 nuclear weapons 20 years after the Cold War.”

Many attendees admitted that international efforts have been inadequate.

“To be honest,” said Mr. Kislyak, “I can’t report that we’ve moved significantly ahead.”

“The goal of nuclear disarmament has remained a mirage,” added General (retired) Ved Malik, former Chief of Army Staff of India.

Yet, most attendees expressed hope in the new opportunity presented by the gathering of diverse leaders from around the world.

“The human race is in some serious danger. It’s essential for us to rise above the issues that have previously divided us and see if we can find a way to cooperatively cause the elimination of nuclear weapons,” said Ambassador Max A. Kampelman, former chairman of the U.S. Delegation to negotiate with the Soviet Union on nuclear arms reductions. “I look upon the efforts today as a step in that direction.”

The complete agenda follows:

Keynote Speech

Plenary Panel 1: Seizing the Moment: Highest Priority Steps for 2009

Questions and Answers Portion – 1st Plenary Panel

Plenary Panel 2: Asymmetrical Arms Control? Reconciling Unequal Power

The event was hosted in cooperation with the British American Security Information Council, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, and the Global Security Institute.

Click here for the complete unofficial transcripts of the morning plenary sessions. (1.3MB PDF)

 

Event: 
EWI Leading the Push for a U.N. Breakthrough on WMD