Abu Dhabi, August 23: He is a political economist who has negotiated a number of trade agreements on behalf of the Philippine government, chaired a group of developing countries to discuss economic issues at the United Nations, a good arbitrator and a career diplomat whose postings included Geneva, Brussels, New York, Sydney and lately Abu Dhabi as his country’s ambassador to the UAE.
And now, Libran N. Cabactulan is president of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which will be held in May next year.
Cabactulan spoke to Khaleej Times to discuss his plans, his preparation, his progress and agenda for the upcoming NPT review conference.
“My candidature for presidency was endorsed by the Asian Group, and later on by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a group of 118 mostly developing countries that negotiates on political issues in the international arena,” he said.
“At the third preparatory session in May, I was declared President-elect to the 2010 NPT Review Conference.”
Soon after his position was confirmed, Cabactulan planned four rounds of consultations with the key players of NPT. The first round include introductory meetings with the NAM, the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), the P5 negotiators or the permanent Security Council members — the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China — the negotiators of Switzerland, Finland and Austria and the head of CTBTO (Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organisation) in Vienna.
“The first meeting in New York was getting to know me (and) my ideas, to project that as the president-elect, I will carry (out) my responsibility with utmost professionalism, transparency and neutrality,” Cabatulan stated.
The second and third rounds of consultations will be held from September to December this year in the three major NPT capitals – New York, Vienna and Geneva – and the fourth from January to April 2010 before the start of the conference.
During the consultations, Cabactulan said he aims to present his “ideas on procedural issues and ask them (state parties) the issues they want to be highlighted and negotiated at the review conference. The idea (behind) is to gather the views of state parties and achieve (initial) agreements on key issues prior to the review conference itself, to secure possible agreement.”
Noting that procedural issues could pose a major hurdle to a successful conference, Cabactulan said, “The 2005 review conference failed (because) procedural issues were not agreed up until 18 days of the conference. The ideal situation is to agree on these procedural issues in principle before they start the conference itself.” Some of the procedural matters that needed immediate resolution included the number of subsidiary bodies, nominations of 34 vice-presidents, naming of vice-chairs for the three committees (disarmament and negative assurance, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of energy), vice-chair for the chairman of the credentials and adopting committees, and the establishment of the support secretariat for the NPT.
Speaking about the agenda of the review conference, Cabactulan stated, “The principal actions that will be expected at the review conference are simply first to review what has been done thus far, to implement, to carry out the objectives of the NPT.”
“And the next thing that is expected to be achieved is to come out with the plans or action programme that will carry forward or advance the implementation of the treaty.”
Cabactulan said some of the key issues that are expected to come up during next year’s review conference include the establishment of Middle East free of nuclear arms, which has been initially proposed in 1995; the ratification of the comprehensive test-ban treaty (CTBT); to seek ways and means to encourage other countries to join the NPT (India, Pakistan and Israel are not party to the treaty); the current negotiation for ‘fissile material cut-off treaty’ – designed to stop the production of fuel material for nuclear arsenal; the possible reporting mechanism by the nuclear weapon states (NWS) on the reduction of their nuclear arsenal; the proposal for a ‘fuel bank’ where uranium enrichment will be done by an international body and the bank supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“While the objective of the NPT is (that) one day, this world will be free of nuclear arms… I am not naive enough (to believe) that (this) will happen tomorrow, or after the conference or even in my lifetime. It might take time and effort by countries and negotiators, but what we’re doing is paving the way that would lead us to that objective,” remarked Cabactulan. The NPT Review Conference will be held from April 26 to May 12, 2010 in New York. There are currently 190 countries party to the treaty.
–Agencies