Where will Canada stand on cornerstone nuclear disarmament treaty?
December 13, 2001 - for immediate release
Toronto – In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Canadian Peace Alliance today asked the Government of Canada to urge President Bush to recommit the United States to a treaty-based process to eliminate nuclear weapons.
The Canadian Peace Alliance was reacting to the announcement this morning that the Government of the United States will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.
"Scrapping the ABM Treaty could set nuclear disarmament efforts back thirty years," said Carolyn Bassett, Coordinator of the Canadian Peace Alliance. The US wants out of the ABM Treaty so that it can proceed with plans to develop a missile defence system. Withdrawal from the treaty requires six months’ notice.
The ABM treaty, negotiated between the United States and the then-Soviet Union in 1972, is at the foundation of the international nuclear disarmament regime. If the United States proceeds with its plans to scrap the ABM treaty, it will be the first time in its history that the country has withdrawn from a major international accord.
Over the past several months, the Government of the United States has sought Russian agreement to renegotiate the ABM Treaty in order to permit the US missile defence shield plans to go ahead. Russia refused, so the US plans to bail out unilaterally.
The letter to the Prime Minister reminds him that in the post-September 11 context the threat of nuclear terrorism seems more real and that only the total elimination of nuclear weapons can remove the threat of terrorists obtaining nuclear devices.
The successful conclusion of a Fissile Materials Cut-Off Treaty is the single most pressing international action to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Such a treaty would stop the production of highly-enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium and ensure that existing stockpiles are guarded. A nuclear device cannot be made without one or the other of these materials. Since these two materials cannot be produced in secret, a leak-proof system of securing their supply is feasible and would virtually guarantee that nuclear weapons could not be obtained by terrorists.
The successful conclusion of a treaty such as this would depend on the good-will built up through decades of arms control negotiations, of which the ABM treaty remains a cornerstone.
The Bush Administration’s determination to "fast-track" the proposed missile defence program is behind the decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty. Over the past two years, the Canadian Peace Alliance has persistently asked the Government of Canada to object to the US plans to develop a missile defence system and to urge the Government of the United States not to proceed with them. The missile defence program has been criticized as extremely expensive, technologically unfeasible and threatening to world peace. The Canadian Peace Alliance has repeatedly cautioned that the program will lead to the basing of weapons in Outer Space.
A 1998 public opinion poll conducted by Angus Reid on behalf of the Canadian Peace Alliance found that nine in ten Canadians believe that Canada should take a leading role in advancing the negotiating of a global agreement to abolish nuclear weapons.
In 1996, an advisory opinion of the World Court determined that all states have an obligation under international law to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control.
The Canadian Peace Alliance is Canada’s largest umbrella peace organization.
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