EU Statement – United Nations 1st Committee: Cluster 1 (Nuclear Weapons) concerning the Middle East

Mr. Chairman,

1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, Montenegro^*, Serbia^* and Albania^*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.
2. The EU reaffirms its strong commitment to the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems in the Middle East, as set out in the 1995 NPT Resolution on the Middle East. This was reconfirmed in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration in which the EU and its Member States, together with all the countries from the Middle East and Northern African region, committed themselves to the pursuit of “a mutually and effectively verifiable Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, and their delivery systems”. The EU considers the 1995 Resolution valid until its goals and objectives are achieved, in line with the 2010 NPT Review Conference Action Plan.
3. The EU regrets that the 2012 Helsinki Conference on the Middle East WMD free zone has not been convened. We maintain the view that dialogue and building confidence among stakeholders is the only sustainable way to agree on arrangements for a meaningful conference, to be attended by all States of the Middle East, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by them, as decided by the 2010 NPT Review Conference.
4. The EU has continuously expressed its readiness to assist the process leading to the establishment of a WMD free zone in the Middle East. The EU organised two seminars in 2011 and in 2012 respectively to facilitate dialogue among States of the region and bring the process forward. Likewise, prior to the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the EU convened a capacity-building workshop in Brussels in 2014 for Middle Eastern diplomats in support of the Helsinki Conference. We positively note that the Co-Convenors met with the Arab League Committee of Wise Men on Arms Control and Non-proliferation Issues in January 2017 to explore how a fresh start can be made to the process, and that they will continue to engage with all States in the region. The EU Special Envoy for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation also met with the Arab League Committee of Wise Man and is ready to engage further.
5. The EU continues to call on all States in the region, which have not yet done so, to accede to, and abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and to conclude a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, the Additional Protocol and, as applicable, a modified Small Quantities Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missiles Proliferation (HCoC) could also contribute to regional confidence building, which is necessary to achieve progress towards the establishment of a zone free of WMD and their delivery systems in the Middle East.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.