Declaration of the Fifth Anniversary Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum “Contemporary Problems of Nuclear Non-Proliferation”
DECLARATION
Of the Fifth Anniversary Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe
“Contemporary Problems of Nuclear Non-Proliferation”
(June 4-5, 2012, Berlin)
Participants of the Conference appreciate the significant work undertaken by the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe since its inception five years ago.
During this time the Luxembourg Forum conducted twelve conferences, workshops and seminars dedicated to the most important and urgent problems concerning nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and international security. Representatives of the Luxembourg Forum have met with high officials of the leading nations and international organizations, among them, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrey Denisov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Anatoly Antonov, Acting Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, Director General of IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei.
During the last five years the Luxembourg Forum has addressed US-Russian security relationships as well as regional conflicts and broader proliferation matters. The Luxembourg Forum has published eight books and booklets reflecting the discussions and findings of the conference and workshops. On the basis of the meetings of the Luxembourg Forum the participants adopted twelve final documents which were presented to the leaders of states and organizations both regional and global (UN, IAEA, OSCE, EU, NATO, CSTO). In response to these final documents a number of letters of support and encouragement were received, among them letters from the Secretary General of the United Nations, the President of the European Commission, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Luxemburg Forum received direct commendations from the Presidents of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov. The activity of the Forum was mentioned in the speeches of the officials, works of well known specialists and reports of international expert community.
The Luxembourg Forum fully endorses the vision of a nuclear weapons free world revived by prominent American statesmen (George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, Sam Nunn) and supported by many well-known political and public figures of a number of other countries including the Russian Federation (Yevgeny Primakov, Igor Ivanov, Evgeny Velikhov, Mikhail Moiseyev). The activities of the Luxembourg Forum have been aimed at promoting this idea in various practical ways and agreements pertaining to specific issues of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
The participants of the Fifth Anniversary Conference are deeply concerned by the new deadlock and growing controversies among the great powers, foremost between Russia and the United States, over the prospects and conditions for further nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. This is all the more disheartening after considerable breakthroughs achieved in the context of the “reset” of Russian-American security relations in 2009-2012: signing and ratification of the New START Treaty, successful outcome of the Eighth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the adoption of the documents of Nuclear Security Summits in Washington and Seoul.
In the meantime the arms race is continuing as well as the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the delivery systems in the world. Regional crises and armed conflicts as well as acts of non-state terror may escalate in scale, geography, destruction and fatalities. This is especially the case in the Middle East, South Asia and the Korean Peninsula as extensively debated in the UN and the IAEA. These problems were in the center of the discussions of the Luxembourg Forum.
The participants of the Fifth Anniversary Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe dedicated to “Contemporary Problems of Nuclear Non-Proliferation” call on the leaders of the Russian Federation and of the United States, their allies and all responsible nations, as well as international organizations, to apply the necessary political will, flexibility and ingenuity in order to overcome the present impasse and resume consistent steps along the way of nuclear disarmament, enhancing non-proliferation regimes and facilitating cooperative international security at large.