Delegates from 188 nations agreed on Wednesday on an agenda to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, ending 10 days of diplomatic wrangling and paving the way for the first serious discussions on improving the treaty's control of nuclear weapons.
Egypt had insisted that the month-long conference include discussion of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
The deadlock was broken when delegates agreed to put a reference to previous conferences where that issue was discussed in a footnote to the agenda.
Ahmed Fatthala, Egypt's assistant foreign minister for international organizations, said agreement means that all three subjects discussed at the 1995 review conference will also be on the agenda at the current meeting -- the Middle East, disarmament and nonproliferation.
"These were the three pillars," he said. "We wanted to have a successful meeting, and we couldn't have a successful meeting if we ignored the balanced package we have already agreed upon in 1995."
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the impasse was the result of US insistence that the conference ignore the 1995 and the 2000 treaty reviews and their decisions on disarmament steps, and the insistence of the 116 developing countries in the Nonaligned Movement that the current meeting review and assess progress on past commitments.
Brazilian diplomat Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, president of the month-long review conference, said the solution to the agenda dispute "accommodates the interest of all delegations, including that of Egypt."
Delegates were to meet yesterday to try to resolve the other key procedural issue -- allocating items on the agenda to three main committees and determining how the committees will organize their work, he said.
With just over two weeks left for the conference, Duarte said there was still time to reach an agreement that would reinforce the treaty "in all its aspects" if delegates help.
But others are pessimistic, pointing to the lengthy dispute over the agenda language as a reflection of the deep divisions on the treaty itself.
The Nonproliferation Treaty went into effect in 1970. North Korea withdrew in 2003. Three countries have refused to join -- India, Pakistan and Israel.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS