Statement by Mr. Jeremy Kruse, Counsellor and Deputy Head of Permanent Mission of Australia - Vienna, on behalf of the Vienna Group of Ten, to Main Committee II, as part of the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as delivered on 10 May 2010.
(as delivered)
Mr Chairman
I have the honor to take the floor on behalf of the members of the Vienna Group of Ten: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and my own country Australia.
At the outset let me congratulate your election as Chairman of Main Committee II. We assure you of our full support as you guide us in our work over the coming weeks.
Mr Chairman
We consider this Committee’s work critical to a successful outcome at this Review Conference. It is important that we achieve common understandings here on strengthening the effectiveness of the NPT safeguards system; dealing effectively with non-compliance and proliferation issues, and the risk posed by non-State actors seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, material or related items. These challenges need to be met firmly in a way that upholds the NPT’s integrity and the authority of the IAEA safeguards system.
With such challenges in mind, the Group has prepared several papers of direct relevance to the Committee’s work. These papers - covering Compliance and Verification, Export Controls, and Physical Protection - have been circulated as conference working papers 17, 20 and 21. Each of these papers proposes specific draft review language, which has been carefully crafted in a moderate way, mindful of other States parties’ positions, in order to facilitate consensus on key issues.
In addition to the draft review language, the Vienna Group has submitted a separate working paper proposing a number of specific elements which might be considered for inclusion in any forward-looking Action Plan to be adopted by the Conference. This has been circulated as conference working paper 38.
These proposed elements relate mainly to those aspects of the Treaty that are associated with Vienna-based forums and organisations, and thus are not intended to represent an exhaustive list of elements for a possible action plan.
We hope the draft language and proposed elements contained in these papers will assist the work of the Committee.
The members of the Vienna Group, acting in their national capacities, look forward to working with other delegations in a constructive and positive spirit in this Committee, and in the conference more broadly, over coming weeks.