ISS Today: Syria: Seizing the international moment

Noel Stott, Senior Research Fellow, Transnational Threats and International Crime Division, ISS Pretoria

As Russia, the United States (US) and Syria edge closer to a final agreement and a possible United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution
on how best to deal with the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, it may be wise to step back and consider the enormous potential that a more holistic approach could provide. Such an approach could fundamentally alter the current global discourse on weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Africa's Policy Imperatives Issue 9, October 2011: African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty: An Update - Russia's Ratification of Protocols and India Hopes for an Exemption, by Noël Stott

Issue 7 of ‘Africa’s Policy Imperatives’ focused on the Treaty of Pelindaba and recent developments in its implementation including the establishment of its compliance body, the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE). It also outlined progress made by both the US and the Russian Federation in ratifying the Protocols attached to the Treaty which are of relevance to them. Previous editions provided brief overviews (and updates) of Africa’s general participation in international efforts to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation through a number of conventions, protocols and agreements. These conventions and agreements include the:

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT);
• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT);
• Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC);
• Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC); and,
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540.

This Issue (Issue 9, October 2011) updates Issue 7 and has been compiled as a result of research undertaken since 2007 by the Norwegian-funded ISS’ “Africa’s Development and the Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction Project”. This project aims to identify and strengthen Africa’s role in these international efforts in the context of the continent’s developmental imperatives.

Russia Ratifies African Nuke-Free Zone Pact

Monday, March 14, 2011

Russia's State Duma on Friday endorsed a 1996 treaty prohibiting the presence, assembly, acquisition and use of nuclear weapons on the African continent, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, March 14).

The African Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Pelindaba Treaty, officially took effect in August 2009. Signatories are banned from launching nuclear strikes against African states and from carrying out or supporting nuclear testing on the continent.

"The importance of the document to us stems from the fact we are strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime, and reaffirm our commitment to the obligations which Russia assumed when it signed the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty]. Also, we contribute to strengthening the nonproliferation regime in the world," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told lawmakers on Friday. "Multilateral nonproliferation mechanisms acquire new dimensions."

"Russia signed the treaty with a number of reservations," Ryabkov said. "They stipulate that we do not assume the obligation not to use nuclear weapons against states that are part of the zone free from nuclear weapons in Africa in situations where they have allied commitments to other nuclear states and may participate in military actions using nuclear weapons against Russia, or are members of the corresponding coalitions."

"In signing this treaty the reservation was made it does not apply to the U.S. base of Diego Garcia (an island of the Chagos Archipelago, the Indian Ocean)," he said. "This is an important reservation, which allows us to fully maintain our own security in hypothetical situations of the emergence [of] crises or conflicts in which the potential use of nuclear weapons is possible" (ITAR-Tass, March 12).

Source: http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/siteservices/print_friendly.php?ID=nw_20110314_6782