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Ml 5 5 22 September 1985

THIRD REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE  NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT)

The Minister for Foreign A f f a i r s , Mr Bill Hayden,

MP, said that the Third Review Conference of the NPT had

been a significant achievement in the cause of d i s a rmament.

Unlike the 1980 Review Conference which failed

to produce agreement, this Third Review Conference had

reached consensus on a final document. This achievement

alone showed that the 130 countries which were Parties

to the NPT recognised that the preservation and credibility  of this Treaty were vital to world peace.

The final document, however, was not just a

re-statement of platitudes. It contained important advances  in a number of areas which had been identified by Australia

as central to progress. Â·  _

In particular the Conference, which included

the United States, the Soviet Union and the United K i n g d o m :

- welcomed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone

Treaty;

- called for effective steps towards fullscope '

safeguards being required on the nuclear

activities of those states which have so far

refused to become Parties to the T r e a t y ;

- recommended that the International Atomic Energy  Agency (IAEA) establish an effective system

of international plutonium stor a g e ;

- supported consideration of the separation of

military and civil nuclear fuel cycles of the

nuclear weapons states;

- called on those states which had not yet done

so to make a legally binding commitment that

they will not become nuclear weapons s t a t e s .

An important step was also taken by the Conference

in support of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (C T B ). All

the NPT members who did not have nuclear weapons committed

themselves to achieving a cessation of all nuclear testing

by all states in all environments for all t i m e . They called

on the nuclear weapons states to respond with action to

their appeal for a CTB as a matter of urgency.

