Final declaration of the International Luxembourg Forum Conference “Safe Tolerance Criteria for Nuclear Non-proliferation Regimes”
Final Document ofthe Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum on “Safe Tolerance Criteria for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime”
May 21-22, 2013, Montreux, Switzerland
The members of the International Advisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum express their gratitude to the Geneva Center for Security Policy for its cooperation in holding a session on “Safe Tolerance Criteria for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime”.
The members of the International Advisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum express their concern over the present state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. They believe that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons continues to be the cornerstone of prevention of further proliferation of nuclear weapons and furtherance of nuclear disarmament which are fundamental elements of international security at global and regional levels.
Nonetheless the non-proliferation regime is in need of enhancement and refinement. Equally important is building consensus among the great powers and other responsible states on such steps and their priority for ensuring the efficacy of the non-proliferation regime and its norms and institutions.
The need for such measures is demonstrated by the prolonged crises over the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, as well as a number of other violations and deviations fr om NPT norms and procedures by other states.
The participants of the Conference of the International Luxembourg Forum paid special attention to the following technical, operational, strategic, economic and political aspects and tipping points of nuclear weapons development. These issues should be the focus of monitoring and, if necessary, of actions by the international community in order to enhance the non-proliferation regime:
1. Foremost the technical aspects of nuclear weapons, their delivery systems and nuclear force deployments of various scales were analyzed.
2. Special attention was given to the scientific, technical and industrial potential of states relevant to nuclear weapons development.
3. Besides analyzing the experience of the five nuclear-weapons states, the participants of the conference gave thorough consideration to the specifics of nuclear weapons development in the regions of North-East Asia, the Middle East and South Asia.
4. The International Luxembourg Forum experts started the process of defining criteria for non-declared weapons development that could be used by the IAEA and the UN Security Council to make a judgment about the nature and goals of the nuclear programs of NPT parties. Such criteria may serve for initiation of appropriate actions by the IAEA and the UN Security Council in order to prevent violations or break out of parties from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
5. The participants proposed the establishment of an International Expert Center as a subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council under the auspices of the IAEA with the task of analyzing and monitoring possible development of nuclear explosive devices and their delivery means by non-nuclear-weapon states. This Center would receive relevant information from the national technical means of states and from other sources.
6. Conference participants decided to create a Working Group for the elaboration of criteria and to propose a general structure of academic, public and official organizations which would be assigned the task of producing policy guidance and instruments to prevent misuse of nuclear energy in order to promote safe nuclear tolerance.
Elaboration of such assessment methods and criteria should define the lim its of safe tolerance within the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Participants agreed that continuation of this analytical effort would be essential for presenting concrete proposals to the IAEA and the UN Security Council.
The context of this endeavor is to create an environment that facilitates the peaceful development of nuclear energy while minimizing the risks of its potential misuse and to conduct work beneficial to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, disarmament and non-proliferation.