Montreux to Host Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe
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“Secure Tolerance Criteria for Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regimes,” a conference organized by the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, will be held in Montreux, Switzerland, on May 21-22, 2013. Leading experts on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation from the Luxembourg Forum and other international organizations will come together to discuss critical issues of international security. The Conference will be held jointly with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
It is expected that the Conference will be attended by President of the Luxembourg Forum Viatcheslav Kantor, Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy Fred Tanner, University of Maryland Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Roald Sagdeev; Head of the Centre for International Security of the Institute for World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), RAS Academician Alexei Arbatov; General of the Army, former Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Rocket Forces Vladimir Yakovlev; Chairman of the Governing Board, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Rolf Ekeus; Chairman of the Organizing Committee, International Luxembourg Forum, IMEMO RAS Principal Researcher Vladimir Dvorkin; Counsellor to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, former Chairman of the IAEA Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation John Carlson; Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Ariel Levite; Director of the Non-Proliferation of the Mass Destruction Weapons and Disarmament Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Mark Fitzpatrick, and other international experts and members of the International Advisory Council of the Luxembourg Forum.
Luxembourg Forum experts will discuss technical aspects of creating nuclear weapons, nuclear munitions and their delivery vehicles, the development and deployment of nuclear forces, and scientific, technical and industrial potential as a precondition for the development of nuclear weapons.
Unlike previous events, this year’s Luxembourg Forum Conference will focus on the initial stage of research aimed at identifying those conditions and features that prove that a state’s nuclear technologies are approaching the so-called “red line” which, when crossed, strongly suggests their intention to develop nuclear weapons. Urgent solutions and appropriate measures are required to prevent such developments.
Based on the Conference outcome, the experts intend to aggressively continue their research to provide grounds for acceptable limits of “nuclear tolerance,” the point at which non-nuclear states that have the right to create a complete nuclear fuel cycle for the benefit of the nuclear power industry under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but start to show signs of abusing this right in order to illegally develop weapon technologies. Limits shall be required for countries’ rights to a complete nuclear fuel cycle.
The Forum’s experts are confident that limitation of such rights must be implemented in stricter resolutions than the existing resolutions of the UN Security Council, which, as experience shows, may be inefficient, specifically as concerns prohibitions against Iran’s enrichment of uranium. The token nature of such prohibitions is demonstrated by the position of the Six Nations held in negotiations with Iran, which allows for compromise agreements limiting nuclear enrichment to a mere 20% and allowing enrichment to fuel grade. This essentially undermines the authority of the UN Security Council.
In these circumstances, the Forum experts intend to elaborate clear criteria for nuclear tolerance limits.
According to Forum President Kantor, “the theme of tolerance is widely used in public practice, despite the fact that it does not meet the challenges of the 21st century. That is why we need to enhance the idea of tolerance with the concept of security. The ‘limit of tolerance,’ defining of the conditions in which tolerance becomes dangerous for society, is an innovative feature of the concept of secure tolerance. Crossing this limit requires strict and legitimate measures to restore secure and civilized compromise. The initial application of this approach may prevent nuclear technologies from progressing to the military level.”
This upcoming Luxembourg Forum conference will be the sixteenth event held by the organization. The Forum has held events in a number of world capitals, such as Moscow, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm, Washington and Berlin.
At the end of the conference, its participants will draft the traditional final document with their recommendations and specific proposals. Such documents are drafted by Luxembourg Forum experts on a regular basis after every event and are valued by the global political leaders and heads of major international organizations who receive them. Virtually all the recipients give consideration to the recommendations set out in these conclusions, as evidenced by their replies.
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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 57 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 (IAC) and the Supervisory Council (SC).
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 Iranian and North Korean nuclear crises. Reducing nuclear threats is closely connected to conventional arms balance, development of precision weapons and prospects for cooperation between states on ballistic missile defence.