New York - Ireland is among the sponsors of a resolution calling for more rapid progress towards full nuclear disarmament, to be tabled at the United Nations General Assembly next month, Deaglan de Breadun, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, writes. The decision to propose the resolution was announced after a meeting yesterday of the New Agenda Coalition of anti-nuclear states attended by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen. Apart from Ireland, the other countries in the group are Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden.
The New Agenda Coalition aims to speed-up the pace of nuclear disarmament, pressing the nuclear weapons states to take greater advantage of the post-Cold War environment to dismantle their arsenals. The group was established in Dublin in June 1998 and a joint declaration was issued, entitled "Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: The Need for a New Agenda".
Reviewing progress towards disarmament at yesterday's meeting, the New Agenda ministers stressed that the total elimination of nuclear weapons remained a matter of "real urgency". They expressed concern at "ongoing challenges to the non-proliferation regime" and repeated their call to India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.