G8: Italian Presidency Launches Three Initiatives in Favour of Nuclear Non-Proliferation
05/11/2009
In its capacity as President of the G8 until December of this year, Italy is committed to pursuing three guidelines in the sphere of nuclear non-proliferation, also ahead of the Washington Conference in April 2010 and of the conference reviewing the Non-Proliferation Treaty that is due to be held in May of next year.
Filippo Formica, deputy director general of the Italian Foreign Ministry's Multilateral Political Cooperation Department, illustrated these guidelines in the course of a meeting with the media.
The first guideline addresses the need for a "strengthening of International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA's safeguards, in other words, of its ability to conduct inspections"; the second guideline involves the promotion of a ban on nuclear tests; and the third guideline aims to put in place a "stop to the manufacture of fissile material for nuclear weapons".
“These are the three points to which we will be drawing the attention of the disarmament conference", Formica stressed, pointing out that Italy remains "in favour of the production of nuclear energy for civilian purposes, but only on condition that that production takes place in a context of full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty".
