International Luxembourg Forum’s Supervisory Council Annual Meeting
, 8-9 December 2009
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Supervisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum Holds Annual Meeting in Moscow
On December 8-9, 2009, the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing
Nuclear Catastrophe held a meeting of its Supervisory Council in
Moscow. The Supervisory Council members, including former Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Defense William Perry, former IAEA Director
General Hans Blix, Chairman of the Governing Board, Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute Rolf Ekeus, Director of the
East-West Center at the University of Maryland, Academician Roald
Sagdeev, and co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear
Non-proliferation and Disarmament (former Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Australia) Gareth Evans, discussed the Forum's 2009 results, as well as
the 2010 work schedule and prospects. The meeting also touched upon
nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament issues, analysed the Iranian
and North Korean nuclear programmes, and addressed the problem of
international terrorism. The outcome of the meeting has been drawn up as
a draft Final Document.
The Moscow meeting of the Forum’s
Supervisory Council was opened by its President and founder Viatcheslav
Kantor. Addressing the meeting, Kantor summarised the Luxembourg Forum’s
annual results and declared the work schedule for the coming year.
The Forum’s President emphasised that the world has not become more
peaceful since the last meeting of the Forum’s Supervisory Council on
December 9, 2008.
“Our life still coexists with global and
regional problems and crises. Last year’s global economic and financial
crisis has hit almost all continents and states. No effective solutions
to ecological and demographic problems have been proposed, and no ways
to stop terrorism or drug trafficking,” Kantor said.
He added,
“The challenges facing the Luxembourg Forum are still tense, despite
some progress made in certain approaches to nuclear non-proliferation.”
The experts are still very concerned with the Iranian and North Korean
nuclear programmes. “We believe that coordinated employment of measures
in full accordance with Article 41 of the UN Charter would produce more
results,” Kantor said. “Otherwise, Iran’s steady progress in obtaining
nuclear arms along with efforts to develop a new generation of
long-range missiles shall certainly result in a military and political
crisis with unpredictable consequences.”
Summarising the
meeting’s results, Stanford University professor and former Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Defense William Perry declared that the
remaining U.S.-Russian differences in the START Treaty “…are in details
rather than principal.”
Perry added that he expects all the
differences to be reconciled by the end of December at the latest, and
perhaps as early as December 18.
On December 9, 2009, members
of the Forum’s Supervisory Council met with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov and deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Yury
Baluyevsky. The meeting addressed a wide range of matters, including
nuclear disarmament and U.S.-Russian cooperation on new START, the
problem of nuclear non-proliferation, and prospects of cooperation
between the U.S., NATO and Russia on strategic missile defence.
In recent years, the Luxembourg Forum has evolved into a powerful
international organisation bringing together the world’s leading experts
and engaging them in dialogue. The Forum’s activity is gaining power on
the international scene. Its initiatives are supported by senior
Russian and European officials.