In a speech today on the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons policy, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden is expected to call on the Senate to finally ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Wall Street Journal reported (see GSN, Feb. 17).

President Barack Obama’s large fiscal 2011 budget proposal for nuclear arsenal monitoring would eliminate the need for additional nuclear tests, Biden is expected to say. He is also expected to urge left-leaning arms control supporters to not object to a proposed $624 million budget increase for nuclear weapons as the majority of that money would be spent on oversight of the U.S. stockpile.

The United States has not carried out a nuclear test in nearly 20 years. Biden is set to argue that the improving U.S. ability to scientifically assure a safe and operational stockpile illustrates that tests blasts previously used for that purpose are no longer needed, White House officials said.

The United Nations adopted the treaty in 1996. The pact, however, must be ratified by the United States and eight other nations before entering into force. It needs 67 votes to be ratified in the Senate, which previously rejected the treaty in 1998.

Further details of the speech, to be given at the National Defense University in Washington, were not available at press time.

The Obama administration hopes that movement forward on CTBT ratification could show other nations at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference in May that the United States is meeting its disarmament pledges and to drive home the point that nations such as Iran should adhere to their promises not to develop nuclear arms (see GSN , Feb. 3).

The White House must have support from some Republicans to succeed in its ratification drive. However, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a leading voice on nuclear issues in the Senate, has tied CTBT ratification to approval of a U.S.-Russian replacement agreement for the now-expired 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (see GSN, Feb. 12).

“The focus should be on getting the START treaty signed and ratified, building some arms-control confidence, then perhaps reviewing (the test ban treaty) at a later date,” said one of Lugar’s advisers, Andy Fisher. “The safety of our weapons is still in question without testing.”

Biden is also anticipated to advocate for increased funding to improve the nation’s nuclear-weapon facilities.

“We don’t have the luxury of doing just one thing at a time,” said nonproliferation expert Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund. “These problems are so serious, you’ve got to move them at several levels all at once” (Jonathan Weisman, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18).

Source of this article: Global Security Newswire

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) Japanese member Hideo Hiraoka and 203 other Japanese legislators sent a letter today to US President Obama (copied to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and key leaders in the US Congress) with regard to the US Nuclear Posture Review and the forthcoming NPT Review Conference.

The letter (attached), which was also delivered by a delegation of Japanese legislators to the US ambassador to Japan John V. Roos, supports the US objective to achieve a world without nuclear weapons as outlined in Obama’s April 2009 Prague speech, encourages the US and Russia to conclude negotiations on stockpile reductions, and calls on the US to adopt as a first step a ’sole purpose’ policy, i.e. that U.S. nuclear weapons would only be for deterrence against the threat or use of nuclear weapons from other nuclear-armed States. This would include assurances that nuclear weapons would not be threatened or used against non-nuclear States. The letter also asserts that Japan will not seek the road toward possession of nuclear weapons if the U.S. adopts such a policy.

Endorsers of the letter include leading members of all political parties such as Yoriko Kawaguchi (LDP – Co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament and a former Foreign Minister), Taro Kono (LDP – Former Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee), Senator Tadashi Inuzuka (DPJ from Nagasaki), Mizuho Fukushima (SDP) and Masao Akamatsu (Komei-to).

On February 9, Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama commented favourably in the Diet (Japanese Parliament) on Hiraoka’s initiative, indicating that it was in accordance with his government’s commitment to maintaining the Japanese three non-nuclear principles and his support for nuclear disarmament.

In addition, Hiraoka’s initiative reinforces some of the key ideas in a letter sent by Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada (also a PNND member) to Hillary Clinton in December 2009. In the letter (attached below) Okada reaffirmed the importance of the Japan-US Security Treaty which includes extended nuclear deterrence, but distanced himself from aspects of the previous Japanese administration’s nuclear policy.

In particular, Okada expressed concerns that Japanese officials may have lobbied the US not to reduce its nuclear arsenal – a position which “would clearly be at variance with my views, which are in favor of nuclear disarmament” (unofficial English translation) . Okada’s letter also supported the idea that the role of nuclear weapons be restricted to deterrence of the use of nuclear weapons, and that the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon state members of the NPT be banned.

The Atlanta Consultation III was hosted by President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta and was attended by diplomats from twenty nations including nuclear weapon states (UK and US), and representatives of the international and non-governmental organizations such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, the Two Futures Project, the Carnegie Corporation and the Nobel Peace laureates and several other organizations, who all worked together during the two-day conference.

The purpose of the Atlanta Consultation III was to find consensus on the agenda priorities for the upcoming review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which will take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in May 2010.

President Jimmy Carter was a keynote speaker. Other notable addresses were presented by the Honorable Greta Evans (Australia), Ambassador Libran Cabactulan (Philippines) the 2010 NPT Review Conference President, and the Honorable Sergio Duarte, Chairman of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. All urged an NPT action plan that is “doable and aggressive” and one that will lead to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Global Security Institute organized and ran the consultations, as it did in 2000 and 2005, but this year consultation was markedly different in its optimism for new advances and consensus amongst the global community lead by the United States on the need to cut nuclear weapon stockpiles worldwide and strengthen nuclear nonproliferation.

The Fund for Peace Initiatives was invited to participate in the consultation as a guest non-governmental organization, and was represented by Mr. Les DeWitt.

For more information please contact mpi-ny@gsinstitute.org or visit http://www.gsinstitute.org/

Watch this great video

Check out Global Zeros interactive map that talks about how we can achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

Napa Opera House
Napa, CA
November 2, 2009

GSI President Jonathan Granoff delivers his presentation
before Grateful Dead Lead Singer, Bob Weir took the stage.

Jonathan Granoff and former Prime Minister Kim Campbell	Kim Campbell, Les DeWitt, Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr.
Lily Haydn	Bob Weir, Former Lead Singer of The Grateful Dead
Mark and Lisa Moulton	Jonathan Granoff and Friends

Please join us in Napa to listen to world-renowned experts address the most pressing issues of our day, enjoy the wine reception and celebrate with us during an extraordinary concert. For MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

Melanie Greenberg, Sidney Drell, David Holloway, Siegfried Hecker, Richard Rhodes and guests discuss nuclear nonproliferation, treaties, and US policy towards Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Moderator Melanie Greenberg is president and founder of the Cypress Fund for Peace and Security.
Greenberg was director of the Conflict Resolution grantmaking program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Prior to joining the Hewlett Foundation, Ms. Greenberg served as the associate director of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation, and deputy director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. In her work on international conflict resolution, Ms. Greenberg has helped design and facilitate public peace processes in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Ireland.  She is a member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on the Prevention of Genocide. Ms. Greenberg holds an BA magna cum laude from Harvard, and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Listen to Melanie Greenberg talk about the goals of Cypress Fund

Sidney D. Drell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor of theoretical physics (emeritus) at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where he served at deputy director until retiring in 1998. An arms control specialist, he has advised the executive and legislative branches of government on national security and defense technical issues for more than four decades. From 1983 to 1989, he was the founding codirector of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control.

Listen to Sidney Drell’s 15 minute talk

David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and an FSI senior fellow. He was co-director of CISAC from 1991 to 1997, and director of FSI from 1998 to 2003. His research focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, on science and technology in the Soviet Union, and on the relationship between international history and international relations theory.

Listen to David’s 20 minute talk

Questions from the audience

David Krieger is a founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and has served as President of the Foundation since 1982. Under his leadership the Foundation has initiated many innovative and important projects for building peace, strengthening international law, abolishing nuclear weapons and empowering a new generation of peace leaders. Dr. Krieger has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia on issues of peace, security, international law, and the abolition of nuclear weapons. He has received many awards for his work for a more peaceful and nuclear weapons-free world. He has been interviewed on CNN Hotline, MSNBC, NPR and many other television and radio shows nationally and internationally.

30 minutes

CLICK Here to read David’s article A 100-Day Nuclear Disarmament Agenda: President Obama Scores High

Hosting Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. to speak
on nuclear non proliferation in Menlo Park, Califorina on January 28th 2009.
Listen to a 4 minute Q&A session with Les DeWitt and Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr.