Statement of Amb. O. Enkhtsetseg at the plenary
of the 2010 NPT Review Conference

5 May 2010                                                                                                                            New York, USA

This Review Conference is being held at the time of encouraging signs of progress that give the world a new sense of hope that the disarmament and non-proliferation agenda are realizable. In this respect, the new START treaty between Russia and the United States is an encouraging development. My Government welcomes the treaty and looks forward to its speedy ratification and to further cuts in both countries’ enormous arsenals.

My government took note of other important initiatives and developments that seek to address the security challenges of our times, including the important Nuclear Security Summit held last month.

My delegation believes that the Secretary-General’s five-point proposal on nuclear disarmament is a balanced, realistic and promising initiative to which we extend our full support. The entry into force of the Central Asian and African nuclear-weapons-free zones is another positive development that contributes to the goals of disarmament and non-proliferation. We are also encouraged by the U.S. announcement to start the ratification of the protocols to the African and South Pacific NWFZ treaties and to support the third pillar of the NPT by announcing additional support for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We also welcome Indonesia’s recent decision to ratify the CTBT.

All these developments offer a reason for optimism and warrant a decisive action by this Conference. At this critical juncture, we call upon all the States Parties to seize the opportunity and make a tangible progress toward the strengthening of the NPT in all the three areas.

In order to do that the States-parties do not need to go again to the drawing board and start from the scratch. The decisions reached by the States Parties at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference and the 2000 Review Conference contain important agreements which need follow-up action (may be with some adjustments), especially implementation of the 13 practical steps agreed upon in 2000. Thus the CTBT has yet to enter into force - we call on all remaining Annex 2 States to speedily ratify the treaty. Negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty have yet to start. The NPT has yet to become universal - we call on the States not yet party to the Treaty to accede to it at the earliest date.

Further issues of concern to my delegation include lack of universality in the acceptance of the IAEA comprehensive safeguards agreements and still low number of acceptance of the Additional Protocol; lack of progress on the issue of providing legally binding security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT and lack of progress in the implementation of the 1995 Middle-East resolution adopted 15 years ago.

Mongolia is a strong believer in and supporter of nuclear-weapons-free zones. The Second Conference of NWFZs and Mongolia held last week in NY reaffirmed the conviction of states parties to NWFZs that the only guarantee against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination, a goal that we all must strive for. The conference adopted an Outcome Document the implementation of which can substantially contribute to promoting the goals of the NPT and creating a world without nuclear weapons.

Bearing in mind the importance of cooperation within and among NWFZs, in April 2009 Mongolia hosted a meeting of focal points of NWFZs to promote exchange of views and further cooperation among them. The Ulaanbaatar meeting produced the first joint statement on issues of common interest which was communicated by my delegation to the third prepcom.

More NWFZs are being established and some others are being considered. Therefore, Mongolia believes that a comprehensive study on NWFZs in all its forms and aspects would need to be made so as to take stock of the progress made since the first such study was undertaken by the United Nations in 1975 and chart the future course of action of effective support of NWFZs as practical regional measures to promote the goals of a world without nuclear weapons.

Mongolia strongly believes that every country could and should make its contribution to promoting the goals of nuclear non-proliferation. With that in mind as well as to demonstrate that a viable alternative to ensuring national security by acquiring nuclear weapons at any cost or by hosting nuclear weapons is to ensure national security by diplomatic and legal means, in 1992 Mongolia declared its territory a NWFZ and has since been working to institutionalize that status.

Today Mongolia’s nuclear-weapons-free status enjoys a wide international support. However, to be more credible the status needs to be clearly defined. Since 2005 Mongolia has continued to promote the institutionalization of its unique status at the international level, which is reflected in the Memorandum of my Government submitted to this conference, as contained in document NPT/CONF.2010/12. The goal of ‘institutionalization’ is to clearly define, together with its immediate neighbors, the international aspects of its status and duly reflect it in a trilateral treaty, and seek commitment from them and from the other P3 to respect that status as a unique form of NWFZ that reflects its geographical and geopolitical location.

With such ‘institutionalization’ in mind, in 2007 Mongolia presented to its neighbors a draft treaty that could serve as a basis for talks and negotiations. Last year Mongolia held two rounds of talks with Russia and China regarding the content and format of the treaty. We hope that at some stage of the talks the other P3 would join and take part in ‘sealing the deal’ regarding the content of the status.
The civil society is a natural partner of governments in promoting the goals of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. To provide knowledge about the destructive power of nuclear weapons and the dangers of their proliferation as well as promote informed citizenry, governments need to work more closely with civil society organizations. That is why my delegation supports Japan’s proposal on disarmament and non-proliferation education.

Allow me to conclude by calling upon all delegates to closely work together to make 2010 a year when the opportunities would be seized and substantial progress made towards a world without nuclear weapons and threats.

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