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Building up International Security
Having been affected and victimized by all major conflicts in the region
throughout the centuries, Belarusian public opinion and Belarusian
Government, view unfolding international and European security scene with
immense attention.
Compromise on the issues of nuclear disarmament, achieved at the 2000 NPT
Review Conference, is a solid basis for our work. The program, contained in
the Final Document of the Conference, approved by all states, provides the
international community with a clear vision of the steps to be taken in the
near future.
First, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) should enter into force at
the earliest. Belarus ratified the CTBT and deposited its instrument of
ratification in 2000 reaffirming its consistent and reliable policies with
respect to ensuring nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament and maintaining
international peace and security.
Belarus, as a state that voluntarily rejected an opportunity to continue to
possess nuclear weapons and completed their withdrawal in 1996, is convinced
that it is necessary to provide legally binding assurances to non-nuclear
states. Belarus supports efforts aimed at the elaboration of an
international convention on legally binding assurances to non-nuclear
states. At the same time, we welcome unilateral declarations made by nuclear
states with respect to their policies of rejecting the use or the threat of
use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
Belarus continues to fully observe its international obligations under
agreements in the field of nuclear disarmament. Particularly, Belarus
fulfilled its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty. The final inspection under the INF Treaty, conducted in Belarus in
February 2001, confirmed strict observance by our country of all conditions
and prohibitions under the Treaty. This instrument has played a significant
role in reducing military threat and strengthening strategic stability,
peace and international security. Representatives of Belarus will continue
to actively participate in the work of the Special Verification Commission
set up for the implementation of the INF Treaty.
Belarus pursues responsible policies in the area of export control. The
admission of our country to the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2000 is a proof
of full compliance by Belarus with internationally recognized norms of
export control.
In our opinion, preservation and strict compliance with the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty are the most important components of maintaining strategic
stability determining global disarmament processes. Deployment of a national
ABM system in violation of the Treaty will undermine the existing nuclear
non-proliferation regime and will affect in the most negative manner the
entire system of global strategic stability that has taken dozens of years
to form. Strategic stability is a priority issue for all states without
exception and relevant deliberations should be carried out in a multilateral
and non-block format with the participation of all interested states with
full respect for the UN Charter.
In this connection, the initiatives put forward by the Russian Federation on
setting up European non-strategic ABM system and the Global Control System
for Missiles and Missile Technologies are timely and promising.
In our opinion, the Conference on Disarmament should at the earliest start
deliberations on the prohibition of the production of fissile materials for
weapons purposes. The earliest establishment of a subsidiary body at the
Conference on Disarmament will make it possible to fully focus on examining
this issue in all its aspects.
Belarus believes that nuclear disarmament should be complemented by
practical steps aimed at strengthening nuclear nonproliferation regime,
including by consolidating existing and setting up new nuclear-weapon-free
zones. Belarus continues to believe that the initiative on setting up such a
zone in Central and Eastern Europe is extremely important for promoting
regional and global security and stability. We are convinced that the time
will come when this initiative will become a reality. Belarus is open for
interaction and cooperation on this issue with regional nations and all
other states.
Belarus is convinced that practical measures aimed at achieving nuclear
disarmament, including, among others, transparency with respect to nuclear
weapons, irreversibility of measures in the field of nuclear disarmament,
diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies and strategic
concepts and more active elimination of nuclear arsenals should determine
the entire course of agreed actions undertaken by the international
community in the field of nuclear disarmament. Nuclear danger should be
reduced through consistent step-by-step disarmament measures with eventual
elimination of nuclear weapons as a final goal.
Belarus has been pursuing responsible and consistent policies aimed at
fulfilling its international obligations, under Conventional Weapons Treaty,
Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention.
The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty is also one of the most
important international commitments. Having eliminated, despite economic and
financial hardships, nearly 10% of all heavy military equipment, destroyed
under the Treaty provisions, Belarus made a significant contribution to the
strengthening of regional and global trust and co-operation. Belarus was
also the first OSCE member-state to have ratified the CFE Adaptation
Agreement in 2000.
Today, with the risk of global military confrontation considerably reduced
while local armed conflicts proliferate and threaten regional and global
security, elaboration of confidence-building measures and more active
co-operation between neighboring states, regional organizations and military
and political alliances becomes ever more important.
Belarus is convinced that a gradual movement from simple to more complex
bilateral and multilateral measures and agreements will set up a solid basis
for preventing armed conflicts and strengthening national and regional
security, which are, in turn, integral elements of modern architecture of
comprehensive and indivisible system of international security. Elaboration
of a wide-ranging set of confidence-building measures under OSCE aegis could
serve as an efficient model for successfully promoting interaction between
states with approaches and views quite differing. It is important to
emphasize here the interrelationship between regional and global approaches
to developing confidence-building measures as well as the importance of
undertaking both legally and politically binding obligations in this sphere.
Confidence-building measures and arms control regimes should be further
developed with due consideration of objective realities of the development
of advanced technologies in the area of conventional weapons, those of
offensive nature in the first place. In this connection, Belarus believes
that confidence-building measures should also cover such important elements
of modern warfare as activities of the naval forces and Air Force combat
component.
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