Round Table of the International Luxembourg Forum "Mid-Term Perspective for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation" and meeting of the Supervisory Council of the Luxembourg Forum

Roundtable Meeting of the International Luxembourg Forum on the Prospects of Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation Opens in Prague

The two-day roundtable meeting of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe to discuss medium-term prospect of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation opened in Prague on December 2, 2014.

The meeting is attended by the President of the International Luxembourg Forum Viatcheslav Kantor, PhD., members of the Forum’s Supervisory Board: Nikolay Laverov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Roald Sagdeev, RAS Academician and Professor at the University of Maryland (USA); Hans Blix, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Rolf Ekeus, a member of the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, as well as Tariq Rauf, Director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Programme of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI); Jayantha Dhanapala, President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs; Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Secretary General of the Pugwash Conferences; Robert Legvold, Director of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative; William Potter, Director of the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Fellow of the Science and Global Security (SGS) Program at Princeton University; Bruce Blair, a co-founder of the Global Zero movement; John Carlson, counselor to the foundation program at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney and other leading international experts in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The roundtable has brought together representatives of 14 authoritative international organizations committed to common goals and tasks aimed at non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear delivery vehicles, guaranteed prevention of nuclear conflicts of various scale.

Further steps towards nuclear disarmament, de-alerting of strategic arms and possibility of transition to a multilateral dialogue have been the focus of discussion. The meeting also dealt with the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, including accounting of nuclear material stocks, and also new forms of negotiations on non-weaponization of outer space. Moreover, the agenda of the roundtable included more efficient role of the OSCE in the European safety, preservation of the Open Skies regime and the Vienna document, and nuclear issues of Iran and North Korea.

The Chairman of the Luxembourg Forum Organizing Committee Vladimir Dvorkin noted that, considering the purposes and tasks of the Forum, the action venue – Prague – is especially important, because the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the US and Russia was signed here in 2010.

Dvorkin read to the participants the address of the President of the Luxembourg forum Dr. Viatcheslav Kantor. The Luxembourg Forum President reminded the attendees that the final document passed at the previous Forum conference in Geneva underlined that there had been a deadlock in the sphere of further nuclear weapons control and joint strengthening of the nuclear non-proliferation regime even before the crisis in relations between the West and Russia caused by the situation in Ukraine.

Experts suggested to keep and develop full control over nuclear weapons not only between the US and Russia, but also all other nuclear states, finish ahead of schedule the process of reduction of strategic nuclear weapons under the Prague START treaty by 2016, reach compromise on missile defense, tactical nuclear weapon and thus to ensure success of 2015 NPT Review Conference. To this end, the Forum members proposed to make every effort to prepare and put into effect the Comprehensive agreement of the P5+1 with Iran to assure purely peaceful use of nuclear energy according to the NPT under the IAEA safeguards and within the framework of the Additional Protocol of 1997. The Forum experts called on the US, China, Egypt, India, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, among other steps, to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty as soon as possible . Some of these recommendations have been taken into consideration by the leading states and are in the course of their policy. There is a probability of ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty before the 2015 Review Conference.

“I am sure that, despite the current crisis, we are obliged not only to keep everything that has been developed by the international organizations over a long period of time in the sphere of nuclear weapons control, strengthening of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, but also to continue the development of new approaches and solutions to the existing problems,” the Luxembourg Forum President noted in his address.

"Now, when the relations between the West and Russia are in a deep crisis because of the situation in Ukraine, effective cooperation in responding to new greater challenges and threats, preventing an escalation of war in Syria and Iraq, counteracting large-scale attack of Islamic extremists is impossible,” Dr. Kantor added. “Especially when our common opponents cunningly take advantage of the strained relations between recent partners."

The Forum President expressed confidence that when the leading states finally come to understanding that none of the parties involved in the current crisis are able to effectively counter traditional and new threats to their national security, they will find solutions to overcome this crisis. And then the results of our cooperative work will be fully demanded.

On December 4, following the roundtable meeting, the Luxembourg Forum will hold a session of its Supervisory Board to hear annual progress report from the President of the Forum Dr. Viatcheslav Kantor, and discuss plans for the future.

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The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe was established pursuant to a decision of the International Conference on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, held in Luxembourg on May 24-25, 2007. The Forum’s Advisory Council includes 49 most reputable and world-renowned experts from 14 countries.

The Forum is one of the most representative non-governmental organizations uniting leading world experts on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, arms reduction and limitation. The Forum is headed by its President, Viatcheslav Kantor, PhD. The principal guiding bodies of the Forum are the International Advisory Council and the Supervisory Board.

The Forum’s priorities are to analyze threats imposed by nuclear arms proliferation and elaborate practical proposals and recommendations on the ways to further reduce nuclear arms, strengthen nuclear and missile non-proliferation regime, counteract acquisition of nuclear weapons and technologies by unstable regimes and terroristic organizations, and resolve the local nuclear crises.

PROVIDING FOR NEW STEPS IN NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND NON-PROLIFERATION

DECLARATION

of the Supervisory Board of the International Luxembourg Forum

on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe

December 4, 2014, Prague

The members of the Supervisory Board of the International Luxembourg Forum approve the activity of the Forum for the year 2014 and endorse further elaboration of the ways to overcome the current deadlock in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

We are alarmed by the preсedent of massive violence and destruction in Ukraine – one of the largest states in Europe in its very center – and involvement of Russia and European Union in political and economic confrontation. Russia and NATO have started an arms build-up and are conducting military activities reminding of the times of the Cold War. We strongly believe that this crisis could be avoided and should be resolved exclusively by political means.

The members of the Supervisory Board express their disappointment and concern about the deteriorating state of relations between Russia and the West, deepening deadlock in nuclear disarmament and failure to resolve in due time the Iranian nuclear problem in the recent negotiations. This puts in danger the prospects for successful 2015 NPT Review Conference.

We recommend the following mid-term steps:

· The New START and INF Treaty should be preserved and strictly implemented by the United States and the Russian Federation. The two parties should initiate without further delay the talks on a new treaty with the goal of achieving substantial reductions of strategic nuclear arms, limitation of strategic conventional weapons, and substantial reduction of sub-strategic nuclear arms. Both sides should elaborate confidence-building measures to ensure that the deployment of defensive systems does not undermine strategic stability.

· In parallel, it is high time that the two parties proceed with substantive dialogue in order to reach an agreement on the concept of strategic stability in the new environment: broad missile defense systems deployment, introduction of long-range conventional systems and the threat of further proliferation of nuclear weapons, missiles and antimissile defenses in the world.

· The P5 Forum should find the way of overcoming the obstacles to engaging the United Kingdom, France and China in the process of nuclear disarmament in accordance with Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

· To enhance the strategic stability all nuclear states should commit themselves not to use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon NPT member-state and to abandon all first nuclear strike options against each other.

· In order to proceed with the plan of the Zone Free of the Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East the parties involved should adopt a step-by-step approach, capitalizing on the break-through in Syrian chemical weapons disarmament.

· The failure to achieve the final agreement by the planned deadline in the P5+1 negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program represents a setback. All parties should apply their best efforts and means to overcome the deadlock. In the final settlement the highest priority should be given to the ratification by Iran of the 1997 Additional Protocol and its acceptance of the undertaking not to develop reprocessing technologies, and to refrain from heavy water-related and enrichment-related activities, which are not required for its peaceful energy and scientific needs, and to refrain from constructing new facilities for such activities.

· The six-party talks on North-Korean nuclear arms and nuclear program should be resumed without delay. The primary goal should be to dissuade North Korean leadership from further nuclear and long-range missile tests with the ultimate goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and providing security to all countries in the region.

Members of the Supervisory Board Meeting of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe

Affiliation is for identification purposes only.