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France, U.K., U.S. Continue Opposition to Central Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Plan
France, the United Kingdom and the United States maintain their opposition to the existing plan for creating a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia, U.N. ambassadors from the three nations said this week (see GSN, Aug. 1). In a letter sent Monday to the ambassadors from the five Central Asian states, the Western countries said that the treaty proposed to create the zones does not address all concerns. The Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — agreed on the draft treaty in February. Support from the five official nuclear-weapon states is considered a significant addition to such pacts. China and Russia have already expressed their support, according to AP. The United States, United Kingdom and France in the letter object to language that could allow prior security agreements to take precedent over the treaty. That could include a 1992 treaty Russia signed with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan that Moscow said could allow for missile deployment in the area. “A nuclear-weapons free zone treaty must ban from the territory of its parties the deployment of nuclear weapons by anyone, no exceptions whatsoever,” said Richard Grenell, U.S. spokesman at the United Nations. The United States earlier said it was concerned that the treaty would stop “nuclear powered or nuclear-capable ships and aircraft” from passing through the Central Asian nations. This would limit the movement of certain parts of the U.S. military in the region, which is close to Iran and Afghanistan, according to AP (Nick Wadhams, Associated Press/ABC News, Oct. 4).
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