WESTERN EUROPE CANADA INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0001246411
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: June 23, 2015
• Document Release Date: March 15, 2010
• Case Number: F-2005-01250
• Publication Date: March 28, 1974

 WESTERN EUROPE - CANADA - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
This public specialists in the Washington com-
munity by ffice of Current Intelligence, with
occasional con ri u ions .r ffices within the Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed to
the authors of the individual articles.
TOP ET
 T/lD-~s~rSAviTar~
Work to Begin on Reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty
Th- first preparatory committee meeting for the
1975 Non-proliferation Treaty. Review Conference will
convene in Geneva on April 1. The NPT--which went
into force on March 5, 1970--provides that five years
after entrance into force a conference.of all parties
to the treaty shall be held in Geneva "...in order
to review the operation of this Treaty with a view
to assuring that the purposes of the Preamble and
the provisions of the Treaty are being realized."
With many ratifications of the NPT still outstanding,
the review conference could well generate increased
skepticism over disarmament measures as well as cause
special embarrassment for the US, many of whose
European allies remain among the non-ratifiers.
Three preparatory committee meetings to be held
during 1974 and the early part of 1975 will attempt
to formulate an agenda for the 1975-conference and
to coordinate with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) the technical support that the IAEA
will provide in its capacity as the agency responsible
for verifying the NPT's important safeguards pro-
visions and for supervising peaceful nuclear uses.
The first preparatory session, expected to last
about one week to 10 days, will deal with procedural
questions relating to next year's formal review
conference, but the question of membership criteria
for the preparatory committees and review conference
will also have to be decided. The membership issue
has already raised problems. The depository states
of the NPT (the US, the UK and the USSR) earlier
agreed that membership would be limited to those
parties to the Treaty (those who have both signed
and ratified the NPT) who are also members of either
the IAEA Board of Governors or. members. of the Con-
ference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD). This
26-member group could be expanded to include any
states who ratified the treaty and. safeguards agree-
ments, and fulfilled the other membership criteria,
March 28, 1974
 1P/1T ST /1T1 TIT'S
March 28, 1974
at any time up until the convenini -f the review
conference itself in 1975.
unwieldy and possibly discordant group.
committee as possible and would result in an
By insisting on these criteria. for eligibility
to the conference, the US and the Soviets hope to
encourage further ratifications of. the.. treaty,
particularly by the EURATOM countries and Japan.
Limiting eligibility to the conference could
also prevent critics of the NPT from using the
review conference and its preparatory committees
as an opportunity to attack the. treaty's. basic
provisions and to urge its renegotiation. The
larger the membership, the greater is..the chance
that the US and the USSR may become the target of
attacks by other states for their failure to have
concluded "general and complete disarmament"--an
obligation specified in Article 6 of the NPT.
Although it had been thought that. the member-
ship of the preparatory committee was settled, there
has been some agitation within recent weeks among
non-preparatory-committee members to be admitted
to the conference as ."observers-." This proposal
has the limited support of some preparatory com-
mittee members who argue that this would provide
an incentive for non-NPT parties to take a more
positive stance on safeguards. and the NPT in general.
During debate of the December 1973 UNGA resolution
relating to the NPT conference, it was agreed that
non-preparatory-committee members would have the
opportunity to present their views to the committee
on any matter under discussion in which they might
have a particular interest. To institutionalize
observers at this point, the US argues, would
negate the original decision of the NPT parties
to form as small a representative preparatory