United Nations: Dhanapala Values ABM Treaty

U.N. Undersecretary General Jayantha Dhanapala warned that a U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty could “seriously upset the current strategic balance,” in a Sept. 14 interview with U.N. television’s “World Chronicle.” Dhanapala discussed the current state of disarmament affairs after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Dhanapala said the ABM Treaty was “by common consent, regarded as underpinning the current strategic stability” and U.S. plans to withdraw would disrupt other treaties.

In the last two U.N. General Assembly sessions, the overwhelming majority of nations wanted the treaty kept intact, according to Dhanapala.  “It is very clear that the overwhelming trend in world opinion is against” some missile defense plans, Dhanapala said, “because they do not see firstly, the technology has been proven, secondly, that the threat is as imminent as some say it is and thirdly, because of its overall impact on the entire fabric of disarmament treaties and conventions.”  Dhanapala doubted that the Sept. 11 attacks would shift world opinion against disarmament, because “the situation could have been much worse than it has been.  Consider for example if weapons of mass destruction were used by these terrorists.”

The Cold War’s end has reduced the possibility of nuclear weapons use, Dhanapala said, but with 30,000 nuclear weapons in existence, there were still fears that one could be used by accident or design.  Dhanapala also said use of a nuclear weapon by terrorists could not be ruled out, although there had been an explosion in the proliferation of small arms.  Over 550 million such weapons are circulating in over 85 countries, according to Dhanapala, showing the importance of a recent U.N. conference on small arms.

There are also signs of missile proliferation -- “an area where there are no norms,”  -- Dhanapala warned.  A study was began as a result of a U.N. resolution earlier this year that Dhanapala hoped would lead to “a kind of normative process, if not a kind of nuclear restraint regime because this is another very serious delivery vehicle for both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction.” 

The process has begun to prepare for the 2005 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference next year, according to Dhanapala, and at these preparatory meeting, non-nuclear-weapon states are going to ask the nuclear-weapon states  -- “all of them” – what their stance is and what they have done to implement the decisions of the 2000 review conference.  “I think it’s premature at this stage to make judgments as to how these 13 steps have been achieved but as you know, there have been a number of countries certainly who have tried to make some steps with regard to unilateral reductions,” Dhanapala said.  “And the Bush administration itself has indicated that it would be ready to have unilateral reduction of its nuclear weapons arsenal” (Mike Nartker, GSN, Sept. 14).

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