Parliament Event to Highlight Kiwi Role in Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations

Kiwis played a key role at the four-week-long nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review conference in New York last month, says Phil Twyford, Chair of the New Zealand Section of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND).

Several New Zealand anti-nuclear campaigners and MP Nicky Wagner were at the talks along with the Government delegation and will report back at an event at Parliament on Wednesday 2 June.

"There was a possibility of the conference collapsing in a similar fashion to the previous one in 2005" says Mr Twyford. "Despite increased tensions in North East Asia from the Cheonan sinking, and the possibility of Iran blocking agreement due to the announcement of additional sanctions against them, the States Parties agreed to a consensus declaration that keeps the goal of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament alive."

"The New Zealand government was active in promoting key nuclear disarmament initiatives as part of the New Agenda Coalition of influential middle power countries, and helping to bridge the gap between the nuclear-weapon-states and the non-nuclear-weapon-states," says Nicky Wagner MP, Deputy Chair of PNND and a member of the New Zealand delegation to the NPT Conference." However, perhaps as important was the role played by New Zealand parliamentarians and civil society representatives in generating international momentum on key disarmament proposals and ensuring that governments at the conference were paying attention to these."

"We are very pleased that the New Zealand government came in behind Mr Ban Ki-moon's five-point plan,' says Anna Skinner, Director of Ban All Nukes Generation Aotearoa which had organized a youth-led campaign leading up to the NPT Review Conference encouraging Prime Minister John Key not to 'drop the nuclear disarmament ball.' "US President Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have helped revive the momentum for nuclear abolition - but can't finish it by themselves. They need credible countries like New Zealand to pick up the ball and run with it so that we can indeed eliminate nuclear weapons in this generation."

ENDS

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