PRESS RELEASE
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| 11 June 2009 |
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UNA-UK receives cross-party leadership support for action on nuclear non-proliferation and multilateral disarmament
UNA-UK’s Annual Conference (5-7 June 2009, Edinburgh) received messages from the leaders of the UK’s three main political parties expressing their commitment to the success of global disarmament initiatives. In his message to the Conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also commended UNA-UK’s focus on this vital issue.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown told UNA-UK that “by signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty forty years ago, the UK committed itself to achieving a world free from nuclear weapons. We are still committed to achieving this goal”.
Conservative leader David Cameron praised President Obama’s lead on disarmament, stating that “America’s weight and influence, not least as the country with the largest number of operationally active nuclear warheads, is clearly indispensable to the success of global initiatives”.
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said “One of the biggest challenges facing the global community is the threat of nuclear warfare. Earlier this year, President Obama outlined his commitment to achieving a nuclear weapons free world. I believe that the international community is at a critical juncture and that now more than ever before we can begin to move towards multilateral disarmament”.
The UNA-UK conference adopted a number of resolutions endorsing the moves now being made to reinvigorate nuclear disarmament and to strengthen non-proliferation, and laying out a set of concrete steps that must be taken urgently, including:
- reducing the nuclear arsenals of all nuclear-weapon states
- bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force, in particular through ratification by US, China and India
- negotiating a treaty to end verifiably the production of fissile materials;
- strengthening the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA
- setting up an international fuel bank, that guarantees access to civil nuclear power without increasing the risks of proliferation
UNA-UK’s Chair, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, stated that these messages of support and encouragement showed that there was true cross-party support to take action on the vital twin tracks of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation as we gear up for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
Lord Hannay is available for interviews. Please contact Natalie Samarasinghe on 020 7766 3451 or samarasinghe@una.org.uk
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The UN Association of the UK (UNA-UK) is the UK's leading independent policy authority on the UN and promotes a strong, credible and effective United Nations.
UNA-UK is strictly non-party political and independent of the UN system.
