The U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, which held an exercise last year (above), is one of many nonproliferation successes identified in a recent U.S. State Department self-review (AFP photo/Greg Wood). State Department Awards Itself High Marks for Nonproliferation Initiatives By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. State Department efforts to curb global proliferation were mostly successful in fiscal 2003 despite a decrease in resources, according to a recent self-evaluation by the agency...Full Story

U.S., European Allies Differ on Iran Strategy The United States has said that France, Germany and the United Kingdom are undermining work to force Iran toward full nuclear disclosure, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 8)...Full Story

Japan Slashes Aid Payment, Forcing Cuts at IAEA By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency faces tough budget cutbacks after major donor Japan failed to pay half its expected contribution to the agency’s Technical Cooperation Fund, Western diplomats said here today...Full Story

	Tuesday, March 9, 2004

Malaysia Joins Container Security Initiative Malaysia yesterday agreed to implement the U.S. Container Security Initiative, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency announced (see GSN, Dec. 3, 2003). Agency and Malaysian representatives signed a Declaration of Principles to cooperate in the initiative in January 2003. As part of the effort,  the U.S. agency will station inspectors at the port of Klang to help Malaysian officials screen cargo containers destined for the United States. Klang is the 18th port to join the initiative since it was first proposed in January 2002, according to the agency. “The primary purpose of CSI is to protect the global trading system and the trade lanes between CSI ports and the U.S. By implementing CSI, the government of Malaysia is helping to make a safer, more secure world trading system,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said in a statement (U.S. State Department release, March 8). In neighboring Singapore, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today praised U.S. allies in Asia for their cooperation in the war on terrorism. “The American people know that we will always find friends and strengths in international partners — in the Asia-Pacific region, in the United Nations — in a ‘true culture of cooperation,’” Ridge said in a speech (Martin Abbugao, Agence France-Presse, March 9). Meanwhile, Adm. Gregory Johnson, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, warned yesterday that maritime security remains a weak link in the U.S. war on terrorism. “We have to develop a much more robust security regime in the maritime dimension … it is quite flimsy at the moment,” Johnson said.  About 95 percent of international commercial cargo is transported by ship, with 11 million containers in transit every day. That gives terrorists a large number of targets, Johnson said. “There’s only a tiny, tiny portion of 1 percent of those containers that we know about before they reach our ports,” Johnson said. “The volumes are such that over time any would-be terrorist is going to work this out,” he added (Crispian Balmer, Reuters, March 8). Back to top

State Department Awards Itself High Marks for Nonproliferation Initiatives By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. State Department efforts to curb global proliferation were mostly successful in fiscal 2003 despite a decrease in resources, according to a recent self-evaluation by the agency. In a little-noticed annual “Performance and Accountability Report” mandated by Congress and produced last December, the department concluded it met or surpassed most of its goals last year for discouraging chemical, biological, nuclear and missile proliferation. That included encouraging multilateral talks on North Korea’s alleged nuclear weapons activities and increasing cooperation for a U.S. missile defense program, the report says. The report is intended to help inform Congress, the president and the American public about how the department is performing its various missions, it says, including the overall aim of “reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction to the United States, our allies, and our friends.” The department says it met or surpassed 88 percent of its specific nonproliferation objectives for fiscal 2003, up from 81 percent in fiscal 2002. In some cases, though, the department redefined or dropped goals for fiscal 2003 that apparently would not be met. Furthermore, said a critic, some of the standards for success were set too low, ignoring prominent diplomatic challenges. “They’re grading themselves on a curve. They’re adjusting their grades according to what they feel is important, with some of the most important things left out of here,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. He noted that while the report rated as “successful” efforts to engage North Korea in multilateral talks, it did not evaluate the administration’s overall goal of persuading the communist nation to give up alleged programs and weapons. Nor did the report address the department’s role in arguing for international support for the war against Iraq, he said. “The whole matter of going to war with a country on the basis of faulty WMD data which international inspectors had right at the beginning is missing in all of this,” Kimball said. “Some of the most important nonproliferation matters of the past two years are simply not captured or assessed in this report,” he said. The report only noted that international “inspectors [were] withdrawn from Iraq prior to military action to disarm Iraq” and added the U.S.-led invasion to a list of “Milestones of American Diplomacy,” along with such diplomatic landmarks as the 1783 Treaty of Paris-Great Britain, negotiations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1967 and the 1979 Camp David Accords. Successes The department listed as its top successes: *         the implementation of the multinational Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict WMD proliferation (see GSN, Jan. 16); *         the entry into force of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia on reducing deployed nuclear arms by 2012 (see GSN, June 2, 2003); *         the “significant recovery” of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from financial and administrative crises (see GSN, Oct. 25, 2002); and õ         the push for an international consensus for curbing technology to Iran’s nuclear activities (see related GSN story, today). The report also rated as “on target” a U.S.-led effort to persuade countries to strengthen domestic laws against biological weapons activities, though so far only 20 countries have done so. The administration’s approach toward biological weapons is controversial, as critics have charged it undermined the Biological Weapons Convention by opposing a verification mechanism while presenting strengthening domestic laws as an alternative (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2003). “What the Bush administration is essentially doing is ceding the authority to enforce this global norm to the very countries we’re worried about,” Kimball said. The report said State Department personnel dedicated to WMD issues decreased by 4 percent from 504 in fiscal 2002 to 485 in fiscal 2003, and budget authority from Congress decreased by 25 percent from $484 million to $362 million during that period. Challenges It says, though, that Russia has not stopped nuclear aid to Iran, North Korean ballistic missile exports persist and Chinese compliance with a 1997 nuclear nonproliferation commitment and a November 2000 missile commitment remain a concern.  The report lists the State Department’s current top nonproliferation goals: *         reaching an international agreement on a set of principles to guide proliferation interdiction efforts; *         persuading the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors to report Iran’s nuclear program to the U.N. security council; *         building international consensus that Iran should permanently abandon its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities;  *         maintaining intense IAEA and international scrutiny over Iran’s nuclear activities; and *         ensuring that Iran sees no “carrots” for ending sensitive nuclear activities until cessation of such activities can be fully verified. The report does not list as a top challenge the department’s as yet unsuccessful efforts to persuade North Korea to end its alleged nuclear weapons program. It praises China’s role in enabling six-nation discussions to address the North Korean nuclear crisis, saying Beijing “played a crucial role in facilitating multilateral talks with North Korea on maintaining a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula.” It also praises the administration’s decision to require full verification of North Korean disarmament as a matter of any deal. Missile Defense as Nonproliferation The report rates as a nonproliferation success department efforts to persuade other countries to cooperate on a U.S. national missile defense system (see GSN, Jan. 28).  It said the system’s “development and deployment” is “aimed at dissuading rogue states from acquiring WMD and ballistic missiles and deterring their use.” Kimball said he knows of no evidence indicating missile defenses could dissuade proliferation. “In fact, if we use history as a guide, these kind of missile defense programs are more likely to produce more energetic missile programs among our adversaries or we’ll find that states are developing means of delivery that can’t be thwarted by rudimentary missile defenses,” he said. Changed Definition The report cites as missile defense successes the British agreement to locate an upgraded early warning radar on its territory (see GSN, Feb. 6, 2003), formal U.S.-Canadian talks on possible cooperation (see GSN, Feb. 24), missile defense work with Japan (see GSN, Feb. 19), and discussions of possible cooperation with India and Australia (see GSN, Jan. 16). That was after broadening its definition of success. The goal initially had been to persuade “NATO allies [to] agree to specific missile deployment goals/options.” However, the United States in November 2002 had only obtained NATO agreement to study the feasibility of long-range missile defenses. The goal was changed to persuading “allies and friends” to agree to specific missile defense goals and options because the previous goal was “inaccurate,” the report says. “The U.S. is cooperating with non-NATO allies and friends as well. Also, we are not seeking agreement on specific deployment options, but missile defense options,” it said. Back to top       Hussein Ordered WMD Destroyed in 1991, Iraqi Says The “father” of prewar Iraq’s nuclear weapons program denied yesterday that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime sought to develop weapons of mass destruction after 1991, but acknowledged that the country had sought to conceal its WMD efforts from international inspectors earlier that year, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, March 8). During a conference held in Beirut, Jafar Dhia Jafar presented a paper co-written with Noman Saad Eddin al-Noaimi, a former director general of Iraq’s nuclear program. The two said Hussein ordered the destruction of all Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and related programs in July 1991. The Special Republican Guard carried out the destruction, they wrote. “We can confirm with absolute certainty that Iraq no longer possessed any weapons of mass destruction after its unilateral destruction of all its components in the summer of 1991, and did not resume any such activity because it no longer had the foundations to resume such activity,” Jafar and al-Noaimi wrote Prior to the July 1991 decision, Iraq had sought to hide its WMD efforts from U.N. weapons inspectors who arrived earlier that year, Jafar said during a panel discussion at the conference. “There was concealment at the beginning in all programs,” he said (Sam Ghattas, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, March 9). Jafar also said the United Nations should investigate why its inspectors did not dismiss U.S. and British prewar claims that Iraq was seeking to develop nuclear weapons, according to Agence France-Presse. He added that U.N. inspectors should have submitted reports that were “clear and courageous” to the U.N. Security Council (Agence France-Presse, March 9). A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said that agency’s Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had been forthcoming about what was discovered in prewar Iraq. She also rejected Jafar’s claims that inspectors were convinced Iraq had no weapons program. “In order to be thorough and factual we had to make sure that we had checked every lead and every possibility before making any final determination,” IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. “After four months, we weren’t quite there yet,” she added (Ghattas, Associated Press). Blix Says United States Pressured Him on Iraq Meanwhile, a new book by former chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq Hans Blix says the United States tried to pressure him into telling the Security Council that Iraq was in violation of U.N. resolutions two weeks before the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Associated Press. In Disarming Iraq — The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Blix described a March 6, 2003, meeting in which U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf asked why U.N. inspectors had not determined that the discovery of an aerial drone and a cluster bomb for delivering chemical weapons “were violations of Iraq’s obligations.” Blix wrote that U.N. inspectors had examined Iraqi aerial vehicles “and while Iraqi explanations had not been very satisfactory, we had not yet come to any conclusion about whether the drones were legal.” Blix also wrote that without the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East in fall 2002, Iraq likely would not have allowed the return of U.N. inspectors. If a moderate buildup of forces had continued into 2003, and if Iraq had fully cooperated with inspectors, then “Iraq could have shown in time that there were no weapons of mass destruction,” he wrote. If that had not occurred by July of last year, then “a majority of the Security Council might have been ready to authorize armed intervention,” Blix wrote (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, March 9). Rice Defends Overthrow of Hussein The overthrow of Hussein’s regime increased international security and will lead to a democratic society in Iraq, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. “The decision to hold the Iraqi regime accountable after 12 years of defiance restored the credibility of the international community and increased the security of the United States and all free nations,” Rice said in a speech at the University of Louisville in Kentucky (Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press, March 9). Back to top

U.S., European Allies Differ on Iran Strategy The United States has said that France, Germany and the United Kingdom are undermining work to force Iran toward full nuclear disclosure, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 8). Undersecretary of State John Bolton, in a letter to the three European governments sent before this week’s meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the Europeans’ softer stance was harming efforts to force Iran to come clean on a suspected uranium enrichment program. The United States and allies at the agency met yesterday with representatives from the European nations in an effort to reach some agreement, but the conference would probably be extended due to the rift, the Associated Press reported (Andrea Dudikova, Associated Press/KVIA.com, March 9). The United States wants the agency to a adopt a tough resolution, citing “serious failures” by Iran to reveal its secret nuclear work, while the three European countries continue to emphasize Iran’s cooperation with inspections and progress in revealing its nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported yesterday. A draft resolution circulated by the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has “very tough and harsh language,” according to Pirooz Hosseini, Iran’s envoy to the meeting. He added that he was disappointed with the tone of the document. A draft version of the resolution yesterday said the IAEA board “deplores” Iran’s omissions, calling them a “matter for serious concern” (Charbonneau/Tervelyan, Reuters, March 8). Hosseini continued to demand an end to international scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear program, insisting that Iran has an exclusively civilian nuclear operation. ElBaradei, however, said Iran would remain a top IAEA concern until all suspicions about the country’s nuclear activities were put to rest, Reuters reported (George Jahn, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, March 9). Back to top       Retirements, Downsizing Plague Nuclear Bomb Squad An aging nuclear bomb squad which has been a vital component of defense against nuclear attack since the Cold War might not be able to respond as rapidly as necessary to a terrorist attack, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 7). The Nuclear Emergency Support Team, part of the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, consists of hundreds of nuclear scientists and technicians who volunteer to search for nuclear weapons when called. They face aging equipment, talent shortages due to retirement of nuclear scientists and a legacy of post-Cold War downsizing, according to the Post. Last year, Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman warned that the nuclear agency lacked airlift capability for response to a potential attack (see GSN, July 15, 2003).  Other experts agreed that a shortage of equipment and experts could slow the team’s response to a nuclear event. “Without trained, equipped experts in the field, no level of funding will save lives in a radiological dispersal even,” said one expert familiar with the programs. A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration said an “equipment modernization program” is under way and that agency teams are prepared to handle any emergency situation. “Yes, the equipment is aging, a natural process,” spokesman Brian Wilkes stated by e-mail. “However, over the last two years NNSA has invested in replacing critical equipment, and has added new equipment to our pool. … More equipment is scheduled for delivery this year, with more planned for the next five years,” he added. Another NNSA spokesman acknowledged that the post-Cold War personnel retirements remain an issue. “There are some concerns out there that as the work force ages and people retire, we’re losing some critical expertise,” said spokesman Kevin Rohrer. “On the other hand, we continue to try and hire and retrain people to fill those voids,” he added (Christopher Lee, Washington Post, March 9). Back to top       Libya Failed to Obtain Parts for Nuclear Weapons While Libya paid hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain components for its nuclear weapons program through an international nuclear smuggling network, it often did not receive necessary components to complete each stage of weapons development, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, March 8). In one example, Chinese nuclear weapons designs that Libya apparently obtained from Pakistan were incomplete, according to the Times. Libya also failed to obtain the final and most important stage for its uranium conversion equipment, needed to produce the uranium hexafluoride that is loaded into enrichment centrifuges. Libya further did not receive some of the more than 100 machines it purchased from Spain and Italy to produce centrifuge components, according to Western officials and diplomats. “In each stage, the key unit was missing,” said one official in Vienna. Libya paid upwards of $500 million in its effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to the Financial Times (Stephen Fidler, Financial Times, March 9). Back to top       North Korea Accuses U.S. of Preparing for War; Sweden Urges Continued Pressure on Pyongyang Washington is planning for war while continuing negotiations in the North Korea nuclear standoff, the communist nation said yesterday as South Korea and the United States agreed to plans later this month for joint military exercises (see GSN, March 8). North Korea’s communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said the United States is preparing for “a new war behind the curtain of talks,” the Associated Press reported. “The United States … is reorganizing and redeploying its aggression forces around the Korean peninsula,” a Rodong commentary said of planned shuffling of U.S. forces in South Korea. “All this is for a large war.” U.S. and South Korean officials yesterday announced plans for a week of military exercises beginning March 22 that would include more than 40,000 U.S. troops, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and destroyers and cruisers (Jun Kwanwoo, Associated Press, March 9). Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, yesterday traveling in Japan, urged continued pressure on North Korea through dialogue, the Associated Press reported. “The only solution is through political negotiation or dialogue to put maximum pressure on the North Korean side,” Persson said (Associated Press, March 9). Back to top       Air Force Delays Funding for B-2 Repairs The Air Force has temporarily delayed funding for a B-2 aft deck and wing edge redesign, cracks in which could make the bombers visible to sensors, Defense Daily reported today (see GSN, Jan. 26). Officials cut $77.4 million from the fiscal 2005 budget for the B-2 fixes, reallocating those funds to “higher Air Force priorities.” Air Force officials said they plan to develop a long-term strategy for fixing the cracks by October 2005.  The officials said Congress allocated $27.1 million in fiscal 2004 for an “interim” solution to the aft-deck cracks. The money went toward the purchase of 21 modification kits to support the cracked areas. The Air Force plans to install them by the end of fiscal 2007 (Amy Butler, Defense Daily, March 9).   Back to top

Two Companies Report Progress in Anthrax Treatment Two U.S. companies have made progress in developing new treatments against anthrax, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Feb. 20). Human Genome Sciences Inc. announced today that its anthrax drug, ABthrax, appears safe for use in humans. The Rockville, Md., company said yesterday that ABthrax was found in tests on rabbits to be effective against anthrax if administered within 12 hours of exposure, the Post reported (see GSN, June 25, 2003). In addition, Elusys Therapeutics Inc. of Pine Brook, N.J., said a drug it is developing that is similar to ABthrax has been shown to protect mice and rabbits against anthrax inhalation if administered immediately before exposure (see GSN, May 31, 2002).  According to the Post, U.S. officials are concerned by the large number of companies working on similar treatments against biological agents. The federal government will have to decide which treatments to purchase without definitive knowledge of their effectiveness in humans because of the ethical concerns in exposing humans to biological agents for testing purposes, the Post reported. “We would completely break the bank if we committed to purchasing every one” of the products under development, said National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. “We just can’t do that,” he said, adding that ground rules for evaluating competing bioterrorism products are being developed (Justin Gillis, Washington Post, March 9). Back to top

Scientists Urge New Pine Bluff Disposal Plan to Meet Chemical Weapons Convention Deadline A scientific committee yesterday backed the U.S. Army’s decision to use a mobile treatment system to destroy “nonstockpile” weapons to meet a Chemical Weapons Convention deadline, Arkansas News reported (see GSN, Oct. 31, 2003). The term “nonstockpile chemical materiel” refers to a wide variety of chemical munitions and materials that were not part of the active U.S. stockpile in the mid-1980s. Some of these older weapons and materials date back as far as World War I. In 1992, the Army established the Nonstockpile Chemical Materiel Program to dispose of the materiel (Marina Malenic, GSN, Mar. 9). In a report released Monday, scientists with the National Research Council concluded that an old plan to build a treatment facility at the Pine Bluff Arsenal would not allow the Army to meet the treaty deadline for destruction of the munitions. The mobile treatment system would be less expensive, faster and safer, according to the 12-member panel of scientists. “This alternative could perform most if not all of the tasks intended for (the facility) as currently envisaged, doing so via a demonstrated technology, with improved safety and simplicity and lower costs,” the report stated. The Army agreed in November to the mobile plan, known as the Explosive Destructive System, according to Jeffrey Lindblad, spokesman for the Nonstockpile Chemical Materiel Project. “EDS is something that’s already been proven and successfully used,” he said. In the EDS system, weapons are detonated inside a stainless steel vessel and an agent is then injected to neutralize the chemical weapons material. Pine Bluff arsenal has about 1,200 nonstockpile weapons, mostly mortar rounds containing sulfur mustard agent and German Traktor rockets containing a variety of materials. They make up roughly 85 percent of the nonstockpile weapons in the United States (Alison Vekshin, Arkansas News, March 9). Back to top

Libya May Be Allowed to Retain Scud B Missiles Although the United States has removed Libya’s long-ranger missiles, Tripoli might be allowed to keep is supply of aging Scud B ballistic missiles, a senior U.S. official said yesterday (see GSN, March 8). Five Libyan Scud C missiles were included in a shipment of materials from Libya’s WMD programs that left the country over the weekend, but Tripoli could retain its arsenal of less-advanced, shorter-range Scud B missiles, the senior U.S. official said in a Reuters article. “We’re still in discussion with them on this. ... There may be an option,” the official said. “The Scud Bs are pretty old.  If you had to make a choice between Scud Cs and Scud Bs — which one would you eliminate first — we got the right ones,” the official added. As part of the pledge to dismantle its WMD programs, Libya agreed to rid itself of all missiles covered by the Missile Technology Control Regime — those capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload for a range of 300 kilometers. Some experts have said the Scud B is capable of carrying a 985-kilogram payload for a range of 300 kilometers, according to Reuters Libya might have 80 Scud B launchers and up to three times as many missiles, according to the Web site globalsecurity.org. The country said it needs the Scud Bs for defensive purposes, the U.S. official said. “We’ll be taking a look at whether there are defensive things that could happen instead (of leaving Libya with the Scud B missiles). Are there shorter-range systems that could meet their needs?” the official said (Carol Giacomo, Reuters, March 9). Back to top       Pakistan Tests Shaheen 2 Missile Pakistan today successfully tested its nuclear-capable, long-range Shaheen 2 ballistic missile, the Pakistani military announced in a press statement (see GSN, March 8). The missile has a range of up to 1,250 miles, the military said. Pakistan’s neighbors, including South Asian rival India, were notified about the test ahead of time “as a confidence-building measure,” the military said (Munir Ahmad, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 9). Back to top

Japan Slashes Aid Payment, Forcing Cuts at IAEA By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency faces tough budget cutbacks after major donor Japan failed to pay half its expected contribution to the agency’s Technical Cooperation Fund, Western diplomats said here today. The diplomats said neglect of the fund, which accounts for about one-third of the agency’s annual budget, could have wide-ranging implications for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the global nonproliferation regime in general. “The fabric that represents this agreement is coming apart at the edges. It’s frayed,” one diplomat said. The agency’s Board of Governors, which opened a meeting yesterday that is expected to end this, discussed the fund this afternoon in what one participant called a generally positive tone. The discussion was initially expected at the end of the week but was moved up on the agenda at the request of the Group of 77 developing countries. Tokyo made a $7 million payment in December, about half the amount it was expected to pay into the fund. Japan annually provides 18 percent of the fund’s resources, making it the No. 2 donor, behind the United States. In addition to the Japanese shortfall, Germany last year failed to pay about $2.5 million. IAEA Deputy Director General for Technical Cooperation Ana Maria Cetto told the board this afternoon that as a result of the shortfall, the fund made nearly $5 million in cuts for this year, but it still found itself with commitments 20 percent greater than its resources. “The secretariat is requesting the board’s approval for a temporary overprogramming level of 20 percent, which is higher than the authorized margin of 15 percent,” Cetto said. The board made no decision today about the authorization and will continue discussing the fund tomorrow. Most of the cut involves deferment of payments on continuing activities, but some projects were eliminated outright, a Western diplomat said. None of the cuts affects nuclear safety and security or human health programs, the diplomat said. “If we receive, as we of course hope, further contributions towards the 2003 TCF target and good indications that we can achieve a 90 percent rate of attainment in 2004, then the activities that have been cut or postponed from this year’s program can be restored. However, if resource projections are lower, further cuts in the 2004 program will become necessary,” Cetto said. The developments have sparked concern about the future of the global bargain enshrined in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, of which the cooperation fund is a key feature. Under the treaty, nuclear weapon countries agree to move toward disarmament, and non-nuclear states agree ― in exchange for access to peaceful nuclear technology ― not to seek nuclear weapons. During this afternoon’s discussion, according to one person present, China evoked the possible “collapse” of the global nonproliferation regime as a result of declining nuclear aid to poor countries. Under Article IV of the treaty, “parties to the treaty in a position to do so” pledge to “cooperate in contributing … to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear weapon states party to the treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.” Developing countries are increasingly concerned about the continued availability of such technical assistance, however, and their frustration could become an obstacle to reforms in the nonproliferation regime sought by the International Atomic Energy Agency and by countries including the United States. The agency is seeking to strengthen its verification and safeguards capabilities, but cutbacks in the Technical Cooperation Fund could make developing countries less likely to support tougher inspections. “Clearly,” Cetto said, “the regime can only be maintained if there is sufficient financing for all areas of the agency’s statutory activities. The technical cooperation program is an essential mechanism for realizing the objective set out in Article II of the [IAEA] Statute ‘to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world,’ thereby serving as a basic support to … the agency’s activities.” “It definitely doesn’t create the kind of momentum that we want,” a diplomat added of the shortfall. According to the diplomat, Japan told the IAEA that general budgetary constraints caused its cutback. This was the first time since 1958 that the country failed to pay its Technical Cooperation Fund assessment. Around the time it was deciding to cut its contribution, Tokyo also voiced objections to the agency’s suspension of payments assessed of Technical Cooperation Fund recipient countries, as well as to other aspects of the fund’s management, the diplomat said. The diplomat added that in cutting their contribution, Japanese officials “drew this connection between their cutback and the performance of the [fund].” Cetto said today that the agency suspended the payments from recipients, known as assessed program costs, because “many countries do not pay their costs in full and on time,” leading to an accumulation of $7 million in arrears. “The suspension of the APC [assessed program costs] mechanism … has now given us all the opportunity to re-examine the issue and to reflect on how to improve the system and consider other possibilities for governments to express their financial commitment to the programs in their countries,” Cetto said. The diplomat added that continued cutbacks by Japan would force hard choices at the fund, potentially leading to growing deficits and cuts in major programs, such as those related to human health. Asked whether a third party might step forward to cover the shortfall caused by Japan’s failure to pay, the diplomat said, “I don’t sense that the donor community is looking at this problem seriously.”           Back to top

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