Kazakhstan wants revision of ‘flawed’ NPT

ASTANA - With the global Nuclear Security Summit beginning in Washington, Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev has sought a revision of the “flawed” Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to make it more “effective”.

Spelling out issues on which he expected the summit to hold discussion, Nazarbayev has called for an effective control over nuclear technologies and at the same time asked the world leaders to guarantee the right of sovereign states for peaceful atomic development.

“With the threat of uncontrolled expansion of the nuclear club looming large, unless the international community shows political will, the process of proliferation of nuclear-weapon states can become completely irreversible,” the Kazakhstan president said in a statement here.

Nazarbayev said he believed the NPT in its present form was “flawed and far from ideal”.

“The treaty is not living up to the hopes pinned on it, as it is asymmetric and provides sanctions only for non-nuclear weapon states. It does not have clear schemes of reaction from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN to countries’ failure to allow international inspectors access to nuclear facilities.

“Last but not least, the NPT allows its participants to leave the treaty without consequences. All these circumstances reduce the effectiveness of the treaty.”

In order to strengthen the NPT, the Kazakhstan president put forward an idea of developing a new universal treaty on comprehensive horizontal and vertical non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“Such a document”, the Kazakh president, said “should guarantee the non-use of double standards, while at the same time outlining clear obligations of its parties and mechanisms of sanctions to its detractors.”