Spokesman tells UK to end double standards on nuclear disarmament

TEHRAN (IRNA December 13 2008) -- Foreign Ministry spokesman advised Britain government to end its double standards and selective policies toward nuclear disarmament.

Responding to the recent claims of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband concerning Iran's nuclear issue, Hassan Qashqavi advised the UK government to implement its obligations upon Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and take practical steps towards world nuclear disarmament. 

""As a matter of fact, Miliband's stances mean the UK is escaping from implementation of NPT, while accusing others to deceive world public opinion,"" Qashqavi said. 



Concerning Miliband's claims about reduction of 20 percent of the UK military nuclear capability in the past 12 months, Qashqavi said, ""British government, by storing 190 to 200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, is trying to modernize its nuclear infrastructure so that it can promote its weapons qualities to make up for its old warheads. 

David Miliband in an article published on December 9, 2008, in some British newspapers talked about UK government's obligations for multilateral nuclear disarmament and preventing what he called Iran's proliferation of nuclear ability. More >>>

Russian Regulators Warn Nuclear Safety Undercut by Economic Crisis

MOSCOW, Russia, December 24, 2008 (ENS) - The safety of Russia's nuclear industry is being negatively affected by the country's economic crisis and the situation is expected to to worsen in 2009, according to a newly released annual report by the Russian nuclear regulatory body Rostekhnadzor.

Ongoing job cuts at nuclear facilities include the personnel directly responsible for safety control, states the report by Rostekhnadzor, which is responsible for licensing and safety at Russia's 31 operating nuclear power plants and the eight more under construction.

Activists with Ecodefense are calling on the Russian government to quickly adopt a plan to insure public safety and nuclear security. More >>>

A world without nuclear weapons

Nuclear policy is a major component of United States foreign relations and security policy, and the U.S. approach to the North Korean nuclear issue is also realized within this framework.

The starting point for the nuclear policy of the Barack Obama administration, which is soon to take office, differs from that of the George W. Bush administration in two respects. First, it fully acknowledges the failure of U.S. nuclear policy since the end of the Cold War. The more than 30 kilograms of plutonium extracted by North Korea is a problem, but the amount of nuclear material possessed by a total of over 40 countries throughout the world amounts to no less than 3,000 tons, a quantity sufficient to make 250,000 nuclear weapons.

Furthermore, the United States and Russia still hold tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and nation after nation is attempting to join the ranks of countries with nuclear capabilities, including North Korea and Iran. The world is now in its second period of nuclear proliferation. The threat that most concerns the United States is terrorist attacks using nuclear weapons, and that possibility is greater now than ever. Everyone has simply been fortunate thus far. The United States has thus far neglected to make efforts to observe this crisis in terms of a comprehensive nuclear policy. More >>>

Bush pushes Persian Gulf nuclear agreement

WASHINGTON - December 23 2008 - The Bush administration is quietly advancing a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), raising concerns in Congress and among nonproliferation experts about the deal's repercussions in a volatile region.

The deal to provide the small but strategically located country with the means to generate electricity through nuclear technology could be signed by President Bush before he leaves office, thus making the accord – similar to the much higherprofile nuclear pact the administration reached with India – part of his legacy. More >>>

Has India started deploying troops along Rajasthan border?

Geo TV reports below that India has started deploying troops along its Rajasthani Border.

JAISALMER: December 22, 2008 - India started deploying troops along Rajasthan border. Security in and around Indian defence airstrips has been tightened.

Indian Air Force (IAF) sources said security around places of strategic importance has been stepped up. They said more radars and QRTs have been deployed along the India-Pakistan border.

IAF had initiated these measures to strengthen its air defence to face any eventuality at a short notice. Additional hangars and runways have been prepared and all the radars have been put on high alert. Sources said tight radar surveillance is being maintained to keep a watch on any suspected movements along the border.

Indian forces were on regular firing exercises at locations like Lathi Firing Range in Jaisalmer, Mahsan in Bikaner, Suratgarh and Ganganagar. More >>>

Final Thoughts on Poznań: Mexico, Al Gore and CDM Reform

By now, the conference halls in Poznań are probably ghost towns, the coat racks emptied, and the once buzzing coffee machines silent.

One of the most important developments of the entire event, and in recent international climate negotiations more broadly, flew under the radar.

In a historic move, Mexico announced that it would take on specific GHG emission reduction targets -- 50 percent below 2002 levels by 2050 -- making it one of the first developing countries to voluntarily do so. Mexico plans to meet the target by developing a domestic cap-and-trade system before 2012 to cut emissions from certain sectors. 

Mexico's announcement is important because it highlights the leadership role that developing countries must take in the negotiations moving forward, and demonstrates at least one model for doing so.

It also fundamentally turns the traditional Non-Annex I negotiating position on its head, from "We can't and we won't" to "We can, and here's how." 

Some credit for this announcement is probably owed to the work done by California and the WCI to promote platforms for collaboration with Mexico and Canada. As the new U.S. administration looks forward to building international consensus on shared responsibilities in 2009, there are many lessons to be learned from the foundations of trust that Gov. Schwarzenegger and others have carefully laid. More >>>

Nuclear Security Project

The Nuclear Security Project started with the January 4, 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed by former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Senator Sam Nunn. All four authors are leading the Project and NTI serves as the Project Secretariat.

The world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era. Most alarmingly, the likelihood that non-state terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weaponry is increasing. It is far from certain that we can successfully replicate the old Soviet-American "mutually assured destruction" with an increasing number of potential nuclear enemies worldwide without dramatically increasing the risk that nuclear weapons will be used. U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage — to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.
We endorse setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal. More >>> PDF File

UN chief calls 2009 'year of climate change'

UNITED NATIONS 17 December 2008 — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called 2009 "the year of climate change" as he reviewed the world body's "mixed" record handling crises in Darfur, Kosovo and Zimbabwe.

Speaking at his last official press conference at UN headquarters this year, the secretary general listed climate change, one of his priorities since he assumed his post two years ago, as a key challenge for the world next year.

"I am pleased with our success in keeping climate change high on the global agenda," he said, adding that "2009 will be the year of climate change."

"We have no time to waste. We must reach a global climate change deal before the end of the year (2009) -- one that is balanced, comprehensive and ratifiable by all nations," Ban said. More >>>

Panel Cites 'Tipping Point' On Nuclear Proliferation

Washington: December 16, 2008 - The development of nuclear arsenals by both Iran and North Korea could lead to "a cascade of proliferation," making it more probable that terrorists could get their hands on an atomic weapon, a congressionally chartered commission warned yesterday.

"It appears that we are at a 'tipping point' in proliferation," the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States said in an interim report to lawmakers that was released yesterday. The bipartisan panel, led by former defense secretaries William J. Perry and James R. Schlesinger, added that actions by Tehran and Pyongyang could lead other countries to follow, "and as each nuclear power is added, the probability of a terror group getting a nuclear bomb increases." More >>>

[This would seem to be another argument for nuclear disarmament. Ed.]

Global zero

December 13th 2008 - If Barack Obama sent the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to Congress for ratification early in the new session, that would be an excellent start. Since it was signed in 1996, 148 other countries have ratified it, but it cannot come into effect until the United States does, too. And then he could get on with banning the nuclear weapons themselves, not just the tests.

There's a new initiative, launched in Paris last Tuesday (December 9) under the title Global Zero, in which more than a 100 world leaders endorse the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons completely. That may have a slightly antique ring to it - don't these people know that the Cold War ended ages ago? - but in fact the nuclear weapons are still there.

Some 20,000 of them, in fact. And last July, at a rally in Berlin, Obama publicly adopted the same goal: "This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.'' More >>>

The Dangerous Trade-off

December 15, 2008 - Last fall, large majorities in Congress approved a U.S.- India nuclear trade agreement that allows full civil nuclear cooperation—the sale of fuel, technology, and reactors—to India. This agreement may provide opportunity for the U.S. nuclear industry, but it is a myopic tradeoff: It benefits corporations but threatens to escalate the global proliferation of nuclear weapons.

One big problem with the deal is that India could reprocess plutonium from civilian nuclear facilities for use in weapons. India has the necessary production capability; in fact, India tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and again in 1998, and is estimated to have stockpiled between 50 and 250 such weapons. For three decades, the U.S. restricted nuclear commerce with India because of its refusal to comply with international nonproliferation standards for nuclear weapons. India is still one of only three states never to have signed the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). More >>>

U.S. Not Worried About Nuclear Security in India, Pakistan

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 - Concerns over terrorism in South Asia do not extend to the security of Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons, a U.S. Defense Department official said yesterday

"We see no reason at this point to have any concern with regards to the security of either countries' arsenal," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, addressing the tensions spurred by last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.More >>>

Leaders meet in Paris to call for the elimination of nuclear arms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 -- More than 100 prominent military, political, faith, and business leaders met in Paris December 8-9 for the inaugural conference of Global Zero -- a new international initiative committed to achieving a binding verifiable agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons by combining high-level diplomacy and policy work with global public campaigning.

A delegation of these Global Zero leaders will hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to discuss the new campaign.

At the press conference, Global Zero leaders will announce the outcomes of the conference, including: next steps in developing the step-by-step plan for eliminating nuclear weapons; new poll results of 21 countries about the idea of an international agreement for getting to zero nuclear weapons; and the unveiling of the new, multi-lingual Global Zero website -- www.globalzero.org -- where people can get involved and show their support by signing the Global Zero declaration.

WHO:
-- K. Shankar Bajpai, the former Secretary of the Ministry of External
Affairs of India
-- Richard Burt, the former U.S. Chief Negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) with the former Soviet Union and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany
-- Shaharyar Khan, the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan
-- Lt. Gen. (ret) Talat Masood of Pakistan
-- Malcolm Rifkind, the former Defense and Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom

More >>>

Ex-Leaders Launch Nuclear Disarmament Initiative

Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governor's Island

Previously Secret Documents from Soviet and U.S. Files On the 1988 Summit in New York, 20 Years Later

Washington DC, December 8,2008 - Previously secret Soviet documentation shows that Mikhail Gorbachev was prepared for rapid arms control progress leading towards nuclear abolition at the time of his last official meeting with President Reagan, at Governor's Island, New York in December 1988; but President-elect George H. W. Bush, who also attended the meeting, said "he would need a little time to review the issues" and lost at least a year of dramatic arms reductions that were possible had there been a more forthcoming U.S. position.

The new documentation posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org) includes highest-level memos from Gorbachev advisors leading up to Gorbachev's famous speech at the United Nations during the New York visit, notes of Politburo discussions before and after the speech and the Reagan-Bush meeting, CIA estimates before and after the speech showing how surprised American officials had been and how reluctant the new Bush administration was to meet Gorbachev even half-way, and the declassified U.S. transcript of the private meeting between Reagan, Bush and Gorbachev on December 7. More >>>

Strategic Command Chief Urges Quick Nuclear Weapons Modernization

December 5, 2008: The leader of the U.S. Strategic Command said yesterday that "time is not on our side" to modernize the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, particularly as China and Russia upgrade their nuclear warheads and delivery systems.

"The path of inaction is a path leading toward nuclear disarmament. . . . The time to act is now," Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton told an audience of government, military and civilian arms experts attending the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington.
But Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic weapons, told the same audience that the nation's nuclear modernization program was in a "holding pattern" until the Obama administration could review studies that are to be completed next year.
Chilton said he was concerned that Congress had effectively killed the Bush administration's Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which is designed to provide a modern, safer warhead with no new capabilities before the end of this decade. Expressing concern that the nation's Cold War stockpile is aging, Chilton said that "a reliable [nuclear] inventory supports nonproliferation goals."

Tauscher, whose California district is the site of one of the nation's leading nuclear weapons labs, became a leader in Congress's effort to eliminate the RRW program. She said the Obama administration should "take the high ground" internationally by developing a comprehensive nuclear weapons policy that includes ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia and modernizing a sharply reduced warhead stockpile.

She called on the United States to boost funding for the International Atomic Energy Agency and prepare a multilateral program to be presented at the 2010 U.N. review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. More >>>

Tubewells drying up as water table lowers

PESHAWAR: November 23, 2008- Water table is going down in Peshawar city and a number of tube-wells have dried up in various areas.

The city district government has appealed to the provincial and federal governments for taking urgent steps to bring the alarming situation under control, Daily Times learnt by conducting a survey. Peshawar city has about 150 tube-wells; out of which, 30 have dried up due to lowering of water table.

Dr Shahida Zakir of Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Peshawar said a large number of tube-wells, anthropogenic activities and growing population were key factors affecting water table in the city. More >>>

[Environmental challenges—such as land degradation, deforestation, climate change, and water scarcity and pollution—can threaten global, national, and human security. These factors can contribute to conflict or exacerbate other causes such as poverty, migration, and infectious diseases. However, managing environmental issues and natural resources can also build confidence and contribute to peace by facilitating cooperation across lines of tension. Wilson Center Editor]

Will Nuclear Disarmament Be on Obama's Agenda?

Thalif Deen Interviews Jacqueline Cabasso

UNITED NATIONS - As President-elect Barack Obama marshals his transition team before he takes office on Jan. 20, some of his political supporters are wondering how much of his campaign promises will receive priority during his first hundred days in the White House.

Jacqueline Cabasso at a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty preparatory committee meeting in Geneva in May 2008. (Credit:Steven Starr)

With a recession-hit U.S. economy ranking high on the domestic political agenda, he will also have to gradually deal with a slew of international issues, including climate change, multilateralism, human rights, free trade, weapons of mass destruction, and war and peace.

Will Obama, who was once quoted as saying that "America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons," place a higher priority on nuclear disarmament than previous U.S. administrations? More >>>

Official: UAE to work with IAEA in its peaceful nuclear program

ABU DHABI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said here Monday that his country will work directly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its peaceful nuclear program, the official Emirates News Agency reported.

The UAE will conform with IAEA's standards in evaluating and potentially developing a peaceful nuclear energy program, the country's permanent representative to the nuclear watchdog Hamad Ali Al Kaabi said at a meeting held by the think-tank Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. "The UAE hopes to develop any peaceful nuclear power capability in partnership with the governments and firms of responsible nations, and appropriate non-governmental organizations," he added.

According to studies by official UAE bodies, increasing demand for electricity in the UAE is fast outstripping the growth in supply, Kaabi said. Total electricity demand in the UAE is expected to rise from approximately 15,000 megawatts to 42,000 megawatts by 2020, he added. More >>>

Kabul 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have We Learned Nothing?

November 22, 2008 - By Robert Fisk - "The Independent" -- -I sit on the rooftop of the old Central Hotel – pharaonic-decorated elevator, unspeakable apple juice, sublime green tea, and armed Tajik guards at the front door – and look out across the smoky red of the Kabul evening.

At night, the thump of American Sikorsky helicopters and the whisper of high-altitude F-18s invade my room. The United States of America is settling George Bush's scores with the "terrorists" trying to overthrow Hamid Karzai's corrupt government.

Now rewind almost 29 years, and I am on the balcony of the Intercontinental Hotel on the other side of this great, cold, fuggy city. Impeccable staff, frozen Polish beer in the bar, secret policemen in the front lobby, Russian troops parked in the forecourt. The Bala Hissar fort glimmers through the smoke. The kites – green seems a favourite colour – move beyond the trees. At night, the thump of Hind choppers and the whisper of high-altitude MiGs invade my room. The Soviet Union is settling Leonid Brezhnev's scores with the "terrorists" trying to overthrow Barbrak Karmal's corrupt government.

Thirty miles north, all those years ago, a Soviet general told us of the imminent victory over the "terrorists" in the mountains, imperialist "remnants" – the phrase Kabul communist radio always used – who were being supported by America and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. More >>>

My desire is to see a world free of nuclear weapons

Commentary by By Ban Ki-moon - November 22, 2008 - Weapons of mass destruction and disarmament form one of the gravest challenges facing the world. One of my priorities as UN secretary general is to promote global public goods and remedies to challenges that do not respect borders. A world free of nuclear weapons is a global public good of the highest order.

My interest in this subject stems partly from personal experience. My homeland, South Korea, has suffered the ravages of conventional war and faced threats from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. But, of course, such threats are not unique to Asia. Despite a longstanding taboo against using nuclear weapons, disarmament remains only an aspiration. So, is a taboo merely on the use of such weapons sufficient?

States make the key decisions where nuclear weapons are concerned. But the UN has important roles to play. We provide a central forum in which states can agree on norms to serve their common interests. We analyze, educate, and advocate in the pursuit of agreed goals. More >>>

A rod for our backs

Nov 20th 2008 - Britain decides that climate change is too important to leave to the politicians “GIVE me chastity and continence, but not yet,” Saint Augustine besought God more than a millennium ago.

Those worried by global warming but unwilling to change their behaviour take a similar approach. Evidence of the damage that economic activity does to the planet is mounting, but given the cheapness and convenience of fossil fuels, the temptation to avoid tackling climate change for just another year (and another and another) is hard to resist. This is even truer as economic woes mount.

Britain’s government thinks it has a solution, and it is one that so far no other country has adopted. The approach is rather like that of a desperate dieter padlocking his pantry. If all goes according to plan, a climate-change bill will be passed next week that takes the power to set carbon-reduction goals away from politicians and enshrines them in law. A climate-change committee will recommend five-year carbon budgets for different parts of the economy, such as power generation, transport and manufacturing, with the ultimate goal of cutting emissions by 80% from their 1990 levels by the time 2050 rolls around. More >>>

Iran Has Enough Low-Level Uranium for Work on Bomb

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran has produced the minimum amount of low-enriched uranium needed to make a bomb if it was processed to weapons grade, a scenario that would first require the expulsion of UN inspectors, arms-control experts said.

``There is definitely cause for concern,'' Andreas Persbo, a senior researcher at the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Center, said by telephone today. ``Their uranium conversion operations are going quite well.''

The uranium is stored at the Natanz plant and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations that oversees adherence to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the current level of enrichment, the uranium could fuel a power station. The treaty prohibits further enrichment to weapons grade. Since March 2007, the IAEA has made 20 unannounced visits to Natanz, where it has remote surveillance equipment. More >>>

Orienting the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review: A Roadmap

There is an emerging bipartisan consensus that America’s current nuclear weapons posture imposes an unnecessary burden on U.S. efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism and curtail the spread of nuclear weapons, materials, and technology to additional nation-states.

It holds that the United States must retain a nuclear arsenal as a strategic deterrent, but should embrace the vision laid out by senior statesmen George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn of a world free of nuclear weapons in order to strengthen America’s ability to exercise global leadership in countering 21st century nuclear threats.

The Obama administration should use the congressionally mandated 2009–2010 Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, to realign nuclear policy, forces, and posture with these threats. This study makes the case for why a successful NPR should be among the Obama administration’s top priorities and provides a roadmap on how to structure and manage the review so that it achieves key policy objectives. It is not a study on nuclear weapons doctrine. More >>>

What to do with a vision of zero

The tantalising ideal of a world entirely free of nukes is hoving back into view. It’s a goal that disciplines minds, even if you never quite attain it


Nuclear disarmament
Nov 13th 2008: A WORLD without nuclear weapons is a vision as old as the nuclear age. The makers of the bombs that exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 fretted a lot about the ultimate consequences for mankind of their devilish ingenuity. Now anti-nuclear campaigners are hoping that “Yes, we can!” will do more for their cause than older slogans like “Ban the bomb!” ever did. For on the stump, Barack Obama, America’s president-elect, promised to make the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide a “central element” of America’s nuclear policy.

He will not be the first American president to dream of nuclear disarmament; that unlikely peacenik Ronald Reagan did so too in his day, to the consternation of allies at home and abroad. The reality, in any event, is not one that America can will on its own. Yet Mr Obama has tapped into a new seam of dissatisfaction with the world’s nuclear order. Might getting to zero soon be a less forlorn prospect? More >>>

Britain lifts India nuclear ban

November 10 2008 -The UK Government has announced the lifting of a ban on exporting sensitive nuclear technology to India. Firms had up until last month been banned from supplying equipment and material on the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) "trigger list" to India.

But the government says that items intended for civilian nuclear projects can now be exported. The NSG agreed in September to lift a ban that had denied India access to the international nuclear market.

Last month the US and India signed a civilian nuclear co-operation accord to end 34 years of US sanctions. Shortly before that, France - the world's second largest producer of nuclear energy after the US - signed an agreement with India which paved the way for the sale of French nuclear reactors to Delhi. More >>>

Iran slams Obama's tough language on nuclear arms

TEHRAN, Iran: November 8, 2008 - Iran criticized President-elect Barack Obama for the first time Saturday, saying the world needs more than cosmetic changes in American foreign policy.

The criticism from Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani followed Obama's comment Friday that it is "unacceptable" for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and there should be a concerted international effort to prevent it.

"Obama can understand that strategic changes in (American) policy are required, not just cosmetic changes," Larijani told state television.

"This is a step in the wrong direction," he added. "If Americans want to change their situation in the region, they need to send good signals."

Iran has denied allegations that its nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons. More >>>

What India wants from the new president

NEW DELHI: 6 Nov 2008, Barack Obama enters the White House riding the crest of history. The sense of promise —of restoring America's primacy in the world — will by and large be welcomed in India.

Certainly, in large parts of the world, Obama will be a welcome change after eight years of George Bush, whose efforts to change the world as he found it had some disastrous consequences.

Obama will be a breath of fresh air in almost every part of the world. And to the extent, there is a growing convergence between the two democracies. India can only hope to benefit from a rejuvenated US leadership. Why, then, is India keeping her fingers crossed? More >>>

To the victor the spoils — a world full of problems

November 5, 2008 - The problems that will confront the new president beyond the United States make a nonsense of the metaphor of an in-tray. That suggests bureaucratic neatness, a stack of problems waiting for attention that can be dispatched one after the other.

Instead, he will inherit a worldwide map of problems that demand more time, military commitment and money than America can possibly deploy. It is wrong to lay all of those problems at the door of George W. Bush. Many were there before his presidency – Iran, North Korea, the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, to name just three.

But it is still true that the new president will take on a challenge different in nature from recent predecessors. The US is engaged in two live wars, and Afghanistan is getting worse just as Iraq gets better. More than that, he takes over at a point when US leadership is questioned. In the US’s foreign policy, it has suffered the greatest blow since Vietnam to its reputation for military success and its claim to legitimacy. In economic policy, its recent decisions and even its principles of economic organisation have been challenged.

Around the world, people expect the new president to change this. The expectations are impossibly high.
More >>>

Nuclear deal with US no hurdle for importing Iranian gas: Pranab

TEHRAN: 3 Nov, 2008: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said in Tehran that India's nuclear deal with the United States will in no way adversely impact a project to import Iranian gas via Pakistan.

"There will be no impact of Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline," said Mukherjee to a joint press conference in Tehran along with Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance Shamsuddin Hoseyni.

"India's requirement of energy is quite substantial and we are to locate various sources including civil nuclear cooperation with countries like USA, France, Russia or any other country that is willing to cooperate with India in civil nuclear cooperation," said Mukherjee. More >>>

Louise Frechette Appointed to Advisory Board of International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

WATERLOO, CANADA, Oct 31, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Louise Frechette, Chair of the Centre for International Governance Innovation's Nuclear Energy Futures Project, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).

ICNND, established by the governments of Australia and Japan, aims to reinvigorate the global effort against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The Commission and its members are working to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by seeking to shape a global consensus in the lead up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Mme. Frechette joins an eminent group of individuals who have agreed to serve on the ICNND Board, including Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State from 1973-1977, and Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from 1972-97 and current co-Chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. More >>>

IAEA misses the mark on Iran

In his latest report to the United Nations, Mohamad ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , has cited "substantial progress" in clarifying questions about Iran's nuclear program, stating unequivocally that the agency "has been able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran".

This admission by the UN's atomic agency naturally raises serious questions about the legitimacy of coercive UN sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt nuclear activities that are completely legal from the standpoint of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The legal and transparent nature of Iran's uranium-enrichment program in effect renders moot the UN's demand, and the sooner the UN backtracks on its unjustified demands the less the harm to its image. More >>>

Risks of global warming greater than financial crisis-Stern

HONG KONG, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The risks of inaction over climate change far outweigh the turmoil of the global financial crisis, a leading climate change expert said on Monday, while calling for new fiscal spending tailored to low carbon growth.

"The risk consequences of ignoring climate change will be very much bigger than the consequences of ignoring risks in the financial system," said Nicholas Stern, a former British Treasury economist, who released a seminal report in 2006 that said inaction on emissions blamed for global warming could cause economic pain equal to the Great Depression.

"That's a very important lesson, tackle risk early," Stern told a climate and carbon conference in Hong Kong. More >>>

Nuclear disarmament must shift from aspiration to reality, Ban says

24 October 2008 – Acknowledging that obstacles to nuclear disarmament are daunting, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that it is more imperative than ever to make it a reality given the twin economic and financial crises the world is currently facing.

“The costs and risks of [disarmament’s] alternatives never get the attention they deserve,” Mr. Ban said in his address to the East-West Institute in New York. “But consider the tremendous opportunity cost of huge military budgets. Consider the vast resources that are consumed by the endless pursuit of military superiority.” More >>>

Fallout of US-India nuke deal

Could China's plan to help Pakistan build nuclear power plants be the first of many pacts in the region?

Washington - October 24, 2008 - China's agreement to help Pakistan build two nuclear power plants is prompting warnings that the new US-India civilian nuclear deal is already pushing other countries to pursue their own nuclear relationships.

The concern among South Asia experts and nonproliferation advocates is that the American deal allowing India to pursue an expanded civilian nuclear program with limited safeguards is prompting other countries in a volatile region to seek a similar deal – something the US had said would not happen.

"You can't help but hear about China supplying Pakistan with nuclear power plants and see it as a reaction to the US-India deal," says Michael Krepon, a South Asia nuclear proliferation expert at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. "Pakistan is desperate for energy, as is India, but there are lower-cost and shorter-timeline options for producing it, so there is something else going on here and in the Middle East." More >>>

Japan rejects nuclear accord with India

Tokyo, Japan — Japan has agreed to boost economic and security cooperation with India, but has rejected a suggestion of nuclear energy cooperation. Although both countries are interested in developing nuclear energy and would be feasible partners, Japan is unlikely to agree to a nuclear deal as long as India refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and his visiting Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, signed a joint statement on security cooperation Wednesday in Tokyo, agreeing to enhance strategic dialogue and participate in joint military exercises to ensure the safety of maritime transportation in the Indian Ocean, a key sea lane for the transport of Middle Eastern oil. More >>>

New push to curb Nuclear Weapons

October 20, 2008 REDUCING the proliferation of nuclear weapons at a time when climate change could spark greater use of nuclear energy will be on the agenda today, when Kevin Rudd's new Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament holds its first meeting in Sydney.

The commission, headed by former foreign minister Gareth Evans, will discuss the path towards the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. The Prime Minister appointed the commission in June to press for a new focus on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which will be reviewed by the international community next year. Former Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi co-chairs the commission, which also includes Indonesia's former foreign minister Ali Alatas, former politician and nuclear arms expert Alexei Arbatov from Russia, former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo and former US defence secretary William Perry.More >>>

U.S.-India nuclear agreement is reckless foreign policy

October 16 2008 - The U.S.-India nuclear agreement is an unneeded and potentially disastrous Bush administration initiative that undermines a 30-year nonproliferation policy pioneered by the United States and adopted by 189 nations. 

It will accelerate both the nuclear and conventional arms races between India and Pakistan, countries that have fought three wars in the past 60 years and have come close at least two other times within the past decade.

After two years of arm-twisting by the United States, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) recently agreed to make an exception to its trade rules for India. Congress followed by voting its approval, and President Bush signed the agreement into law. Until the exception, the NSG rules required that India (and all other 184 countries in its category as defined by the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) allow international inspections of all its nuclear materials and the facilities containing them. India had consistently refused to sign the treaty, known as the NPT, and agree to such safeguards, which led to the cutoff of nuclear trade by the United States under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978. This law was motivated in part by India's 1974 nuclear test using U.S. nuclear material that violated the sale agreement prohibiting the use of such material for nuclear explosives. India's violation led to the creation of the NSG, which adopted the safeguards standard for nuclear trade in 1992. More >>>

Pakistan urges accord for non-discriminatory cooperation in N. field

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (APP): Pakistan has called for evolving an international agreement on universal and non-discriminatory criteria for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

“Unfair restrictions on the development of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only serve to strengthen the monopoly of few over nuclear technology and thus aggravate the sense of discrimination and existence of double standards,” Ambassador Zamir Akram, the Pakistani delegate, told the General Assembly’s First Committee, which deals with disarmament and security issues.

“Such discrimination is dangerous for the integrity of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, said Akram, who is Pakistan’s permanent representative to U.N.’s Europeran Offices in Geneva.
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Preventing the other meltdown

October 13, 2008: THE WORD "meltdown" came naturally to the lips last week, referring to the collapse of financial markets. But what about a real meltdown? The word came into popular usage to describe the melting of fuel rods in a nuclear reactor, a result of out-of-control overheating, leading to a dangerous release of radiation.
But before that, meltdown defined not the accident of a power plant but the purpose of a nuclear bomb - the liquefaction through intense heat of metal, glass, and everything else caught in an atomic blast. Meltdown is the point.

Last week's financial metaphor was also last week's all but ignored real problem, as America was encouraged to take a large step in the direction of the ultimate meltdown of nuclear war. Over the signatures of Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman, the government released the statement "National Security and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century." In brief, the two officials argue that the time has come for the development of a new nuclear weapon, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead. Because "nuclear weapons remain an essential and enduring element" of American military strategy, the aging arsenal of several thousand deployed nukes (and many more "stored") must be replaced.
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How India’s New Nuke Deal Might Set Off an Arms Race

Oct 11, 2008: When Congress finally approved the U.S.-India nuclear deal this month, it sailed through the body with scarcely a peep. Most analysts in Washington and New Delhi hailed the move. But some observers worry the United States has just helped spark a new arms race.

The agreement admits India into one of the world's most exclusive clubs: states that openly hold nuclear weapons. Proponents say it will boost cooperation between two of the world's largest democracies, allow U.S. business to cash in on the lucrative Indian nuclear-energy market and bring New Delhi into the fight against proliferation. But there's a hitch. India has spurned the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), under which states promise never to build bombs in exchange for access to civilian technology. "By recognizing India's nuclear status anyway, Washington has undermined the treaty at a moment when it is confronting nuclear crises in North Korea and Iran," says Peter Scoblic, author of "U.S. vs. Them," a history of American nuclear strategy. "And for what? To curry favor with a country that is already a friend of the United States." More >>>

America's New Agenda

How the US Can Fix its Damaged Reputation Abroad

Eight years of Bush administration leadership has severely damaged the reputation of the United States abroad. The incoming president will inherit this deficit as well as a host of other foreign policy crises. To gain back trust, he will have to address nonproliferation and climate change.

The president of the United States inaugurated on January 20, 2009 will inherit the most complex, difficult and dangerous array of foreign policy challenges ever facing a newcomer to the Oval Office: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a rising Iran, a Pakistan that has lost control of its own borders, a languishing Arab-Israel peace process, a Syria covertly cooperating with North Korea on a nuclear weapons program -- and that is just in one region of the world. In dealing with those and other problems, the United States, under its next president, will need all the help in can get from other nations. Therefore the incoming chief executive will have to move quickly to improve -- and indeed repair -- America's image in the world. More >>>

Wrong Direction on Nuclear Weapons

Opinion - Sunday, October 12, 2008 - Walter Pincus performed a worthy public service with his Oct. 6 Fine Print column, reporting on a Bush administration policy paper that calls for developing the Reliable Replacement Warhead and modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons production complex. Both proposals are being reviewed by government panels.

However, the real priority for the next president should not be making new nuclear weapons or rebuilding the capacity to manufacture them; it should be eliminating such weapons globally. More >>>

Bush signs US-India nuclear bill

US President George W Bush has signed into law a nuclear deal with India, which ends a three-decade ban on US nuclear trade with Delhi. The landmark agreement was approved by the US Congress nearly a week ago.

The deal will give India access to US civilian nuclear technology and fuel in return for inspections of its civilian, but not military, nuclear facilities. India says the accord is vital to meet its rising energy needs. Critics say it creates a dangerous precedent. They say it effectively allows India to expand its nuclear power industry without requiring it to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as other nations must. More >>>

British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won

LONDON - Sun Oct 5, 2008 (Reuters) - Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported.

It quoted Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying in an interview that if the Taliban were willing to talk, then that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency.

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.

He said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but that troops may well leave Afghanistan with there still being a low level of insurgency. More >>>

US says not contemplating a nuclear deal with Pakistan

WASHINGTON: 3 Oct, 2008: The US has said it was not contemplating any deal with Pakistan similar to the Indo-US nuclear agreement, insisting that New Delhi's case was "unique" because of its past record on non-proliferation.

"At the moment, I'm not aware of a contemplation of a similar such (nuclear) deal at this time with Pakistan," State department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here.

He disagreed with the suggestion that after cutting a "special" deal with India, others would seek civil nuclear cooperation. More >>>

UNFCCC Fellowship Programme

The objective of the fellowship programme is to contribute to building capacity for addressing climate change in non-Annex I Parties, in particular small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) Parties, through the development of local professional expertise by:

* Supporting innovative analytical work on climate change in the context of sustainable development;

* Promoting a network of experts who can bring creative and innovative options to bear on questions of climate change;

* Encouraging the leadership potential of young and promising professionals in their fields.

The programme target group consists of mid-career professionals who are already in a government’s employment and who are nationals of and working in a developing country, preferably SIDS or LDC Party. While fellowships are awarded to individuals, the need for training must occur within the context of the organization for which an applicant works. The training must help the organization to develop its capacity.
More on UNFCCC Site

India Nuclear-Energy Agreement Wins U.S. Senate Panel's Backing

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- India and the Bush administration won the backing of a key Senate panel to resume trade in nuclear fuel and technology between the two countries after more than three decades.


The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 19-2 today in favor of legislation to approve the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement. The measure, which had the support of top Democrats and Republicans on the panel, moves to the Senate floor. The House of Representatives also is considering whether to grant its approval. More >>>

U.S.-India nuclear bond?

Commentary by William Hawkins

Washington - September 21, 2008: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sept. 11 said she supports waiving House rules to speed passage of the U.S.-India nuclear trade agreement by the end of the year.

"It does have support in the House," she said. The seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with its focus on national security, was an apt time for the speaker to talk about the pact with India. The agreement has diplomatic implications that extend far beyond even its substantial economic benefits. More >>>