The historic resolution adopted by the UN Security Council, seeking to rid the world of nuclear arms would be widely hailed. So would President Obama's statement dealing with the twin issues of disarmament and non-proliferation.
The resolution calls on the nuclear weapons states to create conditions for the scrapping of their deadly arsenals, while it urges all countries that have not signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to do so. President Obama said the spread and use of nuclear weapons was a fundamental threat to the security of all peoples and all nations and it was time to act as the world now faces proliferation of a scope and complexity that demands new strategies and a new approach. The rare unanimity in the Security Council on an issue, which had defied all attempts at consensus throughout the Cold War, would inspire many with optimism.
Among the steps proposed in the resolution is the locking down of all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years. The Council also calls on the nuclear weapons states to ratify a ban on nuclear testing, something that the US Senate has yet to endorse.
The resolution also proposes the negotiation of a new treaty to stop the production of fissile material. Thus many elements, previously endorsed individually in the Security Council or other international forums, have been brought together in a single document, adding political momentum to the ongoing efforts at ensuring nuclear safety.
The US-sponsored resolution marks a major shift in Washington's policy on disarmament. As Obama acknowledged, the US was part of the nuclear problem and would have to accept limits on its own arsenal, something considered an anathema by Bush. Obama also committed to winning Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Bill Clinton could not get through the Senate and the subsequent Bush administration opposed it as being "highly dangerous".
While Iran's nuclear programme was not mentioned in the resolution, the issue did come under discussion, exposing divisions on how to regulate nuclear proliferation. There was a feeling of frustration, poignantly expressed by French President Sarkozy, about years of gradually escalating sanctions having failed to produce the desired results. China, however, remained opposed to any sanctions regime against Iran.
Instead of trying to tighten the noose around Iran, what needs to be done is to seek a nuclear-free region status for the Middle East. The West, however, is not willing to undertake the move for it would deprive Israel of its unacknowledged nuclear arsenal.
The resolution has ruffled India's feathers as, by implication, it binds New Delhi to place all its nuclear facilities under international safeguards. A last-minute US addition to the resolution also reaffirms the outcomes of the 1995 and 2000 NPT review conferences, which, inter alia, seek to introduce comprehensive safeguards as a condition for nuclear supply, the very requirement the NSG waived for India last September.
In a direct answer to the resolution's call to sign the non-proliferation treaty, the Indian letter, addressed to the SC president on the eve of the passage of the resolution says, "[There] is no question of India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state." India's obduracy could also create problems in South Asia.
It could start an India-Pak nuclear race if New Delhi was to go for further testing, which is being suggested by a number of Indian scientists after doubts were raised about the yield of the Pokhran tests. There are weaknesses in the resolution, the most important being the absence of any mandatory disarmament steps. This could be interpreted as a deliberate loophole inserted by the five big powers so that they wouldn't have to scrap their nuclear arsenals.
The resolution, nevertheless, constitutes a historic move for a nuclear-free world. It expresses the will of the peoples and nations for a peaceful globe. That it has been endorsed by the most powerful UN organisation provides it a measure of sanctity.
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