08-16-2008, 12:53 AM
EDITORIAL
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Honour NPT's 'second pillar'</b>
United States President George Bush made a surprisingly triumphant visit to Bangkok in celebration of the 175th year of bilateral relations between the US and Thailand. The centrepiece of his address to a VIP crowd at Government House on Wednesday was a challenge to the leaders of the Burmese military regime to release Nobel Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and make real strides towards democratisation of the country. In this area the foreign policy of the Bush administration has been steadfast, although like the rest of the world it has been unable to offer a clear strategy on how to realise these noble goals.
Earlier in his Asian tour in Seoul, Mr Bush highlighted what may be the most enduring policy accomplishment of his tenure as US president when he offered economic hope to North Korea in exchange for verifiable compliance in that country's denuclearisation process, which was agreed to in a six-party negotiation involving North and South Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia. Mr Bush said that in order to gain the world's trust the North must take concrete steps to get rid of its relatively small nuclear arsenal and make it compliant with the "first pillar" of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which seeks to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. What is too often forgotten in today's world is the NPT's "second pillar", which also makes demands on the established nuclear powers to pursue negotiations relating to nuclear disarmament, and on a "treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control".
Mr Bush cannot be blamed entirely for the total lack of progress during his administration in achieving this goal, but without a proactive stance on nuclear disarmament from the US there is no hope that it will come to pass.
It is encouraging therefore that four highly prominent officials in previous US administrations - former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former secretary of defence William Perry and a former chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Sam Nunn - to begin taking the steps to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle, at least as far weapons production is concerned.
As their credentials would suggest, the proposals offered by these statesmen, sometimes called the "Gang of Four", are well thought out. They include as a preliminary step the removal of US and Russian missiles from a hair-trigger readiness status.
Mr Shultz has said the next president must have the political will and the available technical support to "launch an initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate the world's arsenals". A new president will be in office when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, agreement between the US and Russia expires in 2009. Democrat Barack Obama has already expressed support for the "Gang of Four" initiative. Republican John McCain has not as yet, but has called for renewed arms control negotiations with Russia leading to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals.
Apparently, and hopefully, North Korea has realised the futility of maintaining and developing nuclear weapons if it means ostracisation by the rest of the world. For different reasons, might not the rest of the nuclear club, led by the US and Russia, realise the wisdom in actively reducing nuclear stockpiles which have the potential to destroy the world many times over?
<b>
Honour NPT's 'second pillar'</b>
United States President George Bush made a surprisingly triumphant visit to Bangkok in celebration of the 175th year of bilateral relations between the US and Thailand. The centrepiece of his address to a VIP crowd at Government House on Wednesday was a challenge to the leaders of the Burmese military regime to release Nobel Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and make real strides towards democratisation of the country. In this area the foreign policy of the Bush administration has been steadfast, although like the rest of the world it has been unable to offer a clear strategy on how to realise these noble goals.
Earlier in his Asian tour in Seoul, Mr Bush highlighted what may be the most enduring policy accomplishment of his tenure as US president when he offered economic hope to North Korea in exchange for verifiable compliance in that country's denuclearisation process, which was agreed to in a six-party negotiation involving North and South Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia. Mr Bush said that in order to gain the world's trust the North must take concrete steps to get rid of its relatively small nuclear arsenal and make it compliant with the "first pillar" of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which seeks to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. What is too often forgotten in today's world is the NPT's "second pillar", which also makes demands on the established nuclear powers to pursue negotiations relating to nuclear disarmament, and on a "treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control".
Mr Bush cannot be blamed entirely for the total lack of progress during his administration in achieving this goal, but without a proactive stance on nuclear disarmament from the US there is no hope that it will come to pass.
It is encouraging therefore that four highly prominent officials in previous US administrations - former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former secretary of defence William Perry and a former chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Sam Nunn - to begin taking the steps to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle, at least as far weapons production is concerned.
As their credentials would suggest, the proposals offered by these statesmen, sometimes called the "Gang of Four", are well thought out. They include as a preliminary step the removal of US and Russian missiles from a hair-trigger readiness status.
Mr Shultz has said the next president must have the political will and the available technical support to "launch an initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate the world's arsenals". A new president will be in office when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, agreement between the US and Russia expires in 2009. Democrat Barack Obama has already expressed support for the "Gang of Four" initiative. Republican John McCain has not as yet, but has called for renewed arms control negotiations with Russia leading to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals.
Apparently, and hopefully, North Korea has realised the futility of maintaining and developing nuclear weapons if it means ostracisation by the rest of the world. For different reasons, might not the rest of the nuclear club, led by the US and Russia, realise the wisdom in actively reducing nuclear stockpiles which have the potential to destroy the world many times over?