By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

U.S. President George W. Bush today called on the United Nations to pass an “anti-proliferation resolution” urging nations to adopt more stringent measures to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

“The resolution should call on all members of the U.N. to criminalize the proliferation of weapons, weapons of mass destruction; to enact strict export controls consistent with international standards; and to secure any and all sensitive materials within their own borders,” Bush told the U.N. General Assembly in New York.  The United States is prepared to help countries draft such new laws and to aid in their enforcement, Bush said.

Bush also highlighted several international efforts already underway to reduce WMD proliferation, including the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an 11-nation effort to interdict shipments of WMD-related cargo (see GSN, Sept. 17).  Bush also called on countries to join a nonproliferation partnership created last year by the Group of Eight — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  Under the partnership, G-8 members agreed to provide $20 billion over 10 years to combat WMD proliferation (see GSN, June 5).  Since the partnership began, several additional countries outside the G-8 have joined. 

“The deadly combination of outlaw regimes, and terror networks and weapons of mass murder is a peril that cannot be ignored or wished away,” Bush told the assembly.

“If such a danger is allowed to fully materialize, all words, all protests, will come too late.  Nations of the world must have the wisdom and the will to stop grave threats before they arrive,” Bush said.

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