Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-159"
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"en.20050308.20.2-159"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, it was once said by the former NATO Secretary-General Manfred Wörner – whom we lost far too early – that once technical know-how in matters concerning such things as the manufacture of atom bombs was in the world, there would never be any getting rid of it. This analysis may be very pessimistic, but it would appear to be accurate, and, as we draw near to this year’s review conference, one begins to feel that things are at bursting point.
A cursory look at the map reveals that, in one region, and linked to one another by land, Pakistan, India and China are in possession of nuclear weapons, and soon Korea and Iran will be too. There are land links between all these countries and their interests collide with one another, with all the resultant potential for blockades and dangerous situations.
In a region such as that, can countries such as Indonesia or the Philippines, in the long term, refrain from doing likewise? If Korea and Iran get their way, then it seems to me quite clear that there will be no stopping them, and that leads me to conclude that we have to endorse the line that has been advanced here with regard to Iran. We should give the three foreign ministers and the European Union a chance. I am glad that the United States has come round to this strategy of achieving something by way of negotiation.
In this instance, because of the way things are developing and because there are evidently already underground facilities that cannot be shifted by these means, pre-emptive strikes would probably do more harm than good. Others may know more about this than I do, but I do believe that we have to be aware of the consequences resulting from geography and the structure of these countries.
Iran cannot blackmail us – that, I believe, is important – but, on the other hand, we should – as the President-in-Office of the Council has said – do everything possible to get it to defer any further developments until such time as negotiations have produced other possibilities. It has to be clear – to this House as much as to anyone else – that improved relations with Iran will be possible only if solutions are found to the nuclear issue and to the issues of human rights. So, for example, there should be no chance of this House ratifying a cooperation agreement with Iran – assuming there were even to be negotiations concerning such a thing, which, reasonably enough, there are not under the present Luxembourg Presidency – unless Iran were to take a more reasonable line. I might add that it is quite plain that this has to include such things as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the IAEA, and the UN.
The same applies, and in the same way, to North Korea, for I too believe that it is necessary to make clear our willingness to help that country in which people are suffering such enormities, our willingness to improve their situation, and that this might well cost us more than we were formerly prepared to spend. We should, of course, also consider – and I expect Mr Ford will come back to this later on – whether the European Union should not take part in the current six-party talks, seeing as we are already involved in funding. I think thought should be given to what shape our political involvement might take.
In any case, I do believe that countering these countries’ nuclear capacities is of crucial importance in the overall framework and in terms of anti-terrorism, for it also enables us to forestall mini-nukes and dirty bombs, among other things. We have to discern the connection here, for it is with these capabilities that we are dealing here, and not just with traditional nuclear strike capability. For that reason, we cannot take this task too seriously."@en1
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