At
UN
For Nuclear
Free Central
Asia, P5 Pose
& Sign, UK
Takes
Reservation
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 6 -- As
rhetoric on
Ukraine and
Syria heats
up, recently
at the US
State
Department's
daily press
briefing
reporters have
increasingly
asked if the
US and Russia,
or the wider
"P5"
with China,
can work
together on
anything.
Often
the answer
given is Syria
chemical
weapon,
drawing scorn
from
reporters. On
May 6 in a
windowless UN
conference
room,
representatives
of each of the
Permanent Five
members of the
UN
Security
Council posed
for
photographs
then sat
in a row
signing a
protocol for a
nuclear free
zone in
Central Asia.
Each
representative
gave a speech
in his native
language -- it
was all men
-- and Russia
and the UK
back to back
cited the
Treaties of
Tlatelolco,
Rarotonga and
Pelindaba.
Ambassador Liu
Jieyi said
"China
supports the
efforts of
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan
to establish a
nuclear free
zone."
Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin said,
"It remains
only to ratify
the document.
We
look forward
to doing it as
swiftly as
possible."
Tom
Countryman of
the US said he
was pleased to
be able to
sign here in
New York
during the
Preparatory
Committee
meeting of the
Nuclear
Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
The
UK added that
it "has issued
a declaration
that sets out
our
legal
interpretation
of certain
elements
within the
Protocol and
Treaty.... in
order that
there is no
doubt about
the conditions
under
which the UK
would not
consider
itself bound
by Article I
of this
Protocol:
notably, if
any of the
Parties to
that Treaty
allowed
nuclear
weapons to be
stationed in
their
territory."
Some
might find an
echo into
protests
raised in
South America
to UK
vessels with
nuclear
weapons
visiting the
Falkland /
Malvinas
Islands.
The
last speaker
was Ambassador
Muzaffar
Madrakhimov of
Uzbekistan,
who
said "the
initiatve to
create the
Central Asian
Nuclear Free
Weapons Zone
was first
announced by
the President
of Uzbekistan
Islam
Karimov at the
48th session
of the General
Assembly in
1993."
Now
if only the
region's water
wars could be
solved...
Watch this
site.
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