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Central Asian Nations to Sign Nuclear Pact This Year
Five former Soviet republics in Central Asia are expected to sign a treaty by October establishing a nuclear weapon-free zone in their region, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 10). The agreement would ban development, acquisition or possession of atomic weapons within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, according to RFL/RE. It would be the five countries’ first formal security arrangement since they gained independence. If signed by their five heads of state, the treaty would still require parliamentary ratification in each country before going into effect. “Except (for the) Moscow Treaty, nothing happened during [the last five years] in the field of nuclear disarmament,” said Tsutomu Ishiguri, a negotiations facilitator from the U.N.’s disarmament affairs department. “This is only one concrete result and it should be really highlighted, the importance of this agreement.” The Kazakh city of Semipalatinsk, the site of some 500 Soviet nuclear tests, is expected to host the signing, which would produce the world’s fifth formal nuclear weapon-free zone. While expressing support in principle for nuclear weapon-free zones, the five declared nuclear powers under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — remain undecided as to whether they will provide security guarantees for the five Central Asian neighbors upon signing of the treaty (Robert McMahon, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Eurasianet.org, July 30).
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