A/RES/58/50
Stressing the commitment made in the Final Document of the 2000 Review
Conference to the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons, 4
Convinced that the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons
constitutes an integral part of the nuclear-arms reduction and disarmament process,
Concerned about the threat posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons due to
their portability and proximity to areas of conflict, and thus about the risk of
proliferation and of use,
Concerned also about emerging approaches to the broader role of nuclear
weapons as part of security strategies, including the possible development of new
types of low-yield non-strategic nuclear weapons,
Taking into consideration the lack of transparency and of formal agreements
with regard to non-strategic nuclear weapons,
Emphasizing that further reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should
be accorded a higher priority, as an important step towards the elimination of
nuclear weapons, and be carried out in a comprehensive manner,
Agrees that further reductions in and elimination of non-strategic nuclear
1.
weapons should be based on unilateral initiatives and included as an integral part of
the nuclear-arms reduction and disarmament process;
Also agrees that reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be
2.
carried out in a transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner;
3.
Further agrees on the importance of preserving, reaffirming and
implementing the 1991 and 1992 presidential nuclear initiatives of the United States
of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/Russian Federation on
non-strategic nuclear weapons;
Calls upon the Russian Federation and the United States of America to
4.
formalize their presidential nuclear initiatives into legal instruments and to initiate
negotiations on further reductions of such weapons;
Stresses the importance of the enhancement of special security and
5.
physical protection measures for the transport and storage of non-strategic nuclear
weapons, their components and related materials through, inter alia, the placing of
such weapons in physically secure central storage sites, with a view to their removal
and subsequent elimination by the nuclear-weapon States as a part of the nuclear
disarmament process to which they are committed under the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,2 and calls upon all nuclear-weapon States in
possession of such weapons to take the necessary steps in this regard;
6.
Calls for further confidence-building and transparency measures to
reduce the threats posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons;
7.
Also calls for concrete agreed measures to reduce further the operational
status of non-strategic nuclear weapons systems so as to reduce the risk of use of
non-strategic nuclear weapons;
_______________
4
See 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,
Final Document, vol. I (NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I and II)), part I, section entitled “Article VI and eighth
to twelfth preambular paragraphs”, para. 15:9.
2