Mr Chair,
In our cluster I statement, my delegation made a presentation of possible short term and long term steps needed to achieve the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. We concluded that such a process will be both challenging and take time.
In the meantime it will be necessary to explore ways to minimise nuclear danger and not least the attractiveness for new states to acquire nuclear weapons. In this respect we are convinced that negative security assurances will be a positive contribution to the NPT regime. Norway encourages the Nuclear Weapons States to reaffirm their unilateral declarations made in the UN Security Council in 1995 in conjunction with the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 984. It should also be recalled that the NPT Review Conference in 2000 tasked the subsequent Review Cycle to consider legally binding NSAs. This was not possible to achieve in the preparations for the 2005 review Conference, but it is time to look into this matter again.
One way of achieving legally binding NSAs is through regional nuclear weapons free zones enshrined in Art.VII of the NPT, and on the basis of the UNDC guidelines of 1999. So far only one regional zone, the Tlatelolco Treaty, is in force with the necessary protocols signed and ratified by the Nuclear Weapons States. We need to make more progress in this area. Norway is providing financial support for efforts to achieving an entry into force of the Pelindaba Treaty as soon as possible. That would be an extremely welcome and high profile deliverable for the 2010 Review Conference.