Back to Basics on the NPT Review Process

1 ENDC/PV.224, 17 August 1965, p. 20.

2 Commenting on this draft, the US delegation noted that the Review Conference would allow states `to assess whether the Treaty is accomplishing its primary purpose of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, and also its purposes of easing international tensions and facilitating agreement on cessation of the nuclear arms race and on disarmament.' International Negotiations on the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Washington, DC: United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Publication 48, January 1969), p. 79.

3 ENDC/PV.358, 23 January 1968, para. 26.

4 Mohamed Shaker, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (London: Oceana, 1980), p. 876.

5 John Simpson, `The 1990 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty', The Round Table, no. 318, 1991, p. 139.

6 SIPRI Yearbook 1991 World Armaments and Disarmament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 556.

7 John Simpson, `The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime after the 1990 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference', in J. B. Poole, ed., Verification Report 1991 (London: Vertic, 1991), p. 37; SIPRI Yearbook 1991 (note 6 above), p. 577.

8 `Heavy-handed' chairing by Nigeria's Ambassador Ayewah was cited as contributing to the breakdown of Main Committee I at the 1995 NPT Extension Conference. Rebecca Johnson, `Indefinite Extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty: Risks and Reckonings', Acronym, no. 7, September 1995, p. 57.

9 Mexico has been said to have played a central role in obstructing consensus at the Fourth NPT Review Conference. (Simpson, note 5 above, pp. 143-148.)

10 NPT/CONF.1995/32/DEC.1, para. 5.

11 Ibid., para. 6.

12 For background on the nuclear sharing negotiations, see Shaker (note 4 above), pp. 191-245.

13 For the First NPT Review Conference, see NPT/CONF/35/I Annex II. For the Third NPT Review Conference, see NPT/CONF.III/64/I Annex II.

14 See, for example, NPT/CONF.III/64/I, Annex I, Section B., para. 12.

15 Final declarations were achieved by consensus in 1975 and 1985. Although no consensus documents emerged in 1980, 1990 or 1995, draft final documents containing agreed and bracketed text give some indication regarding the developments towards a review document.

16 NPT/CONF.III/64/I, Final Document of the Third Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Annex I, Section A., para. 11.

17 SIPRI Yearbook 1991 (note 6 above), p. 581.

18 Ibid., pp. 569-570.