Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Central Asia: Update

In September 1997, the five Central Asian countries signed a declaration to create the world's fifth nuclear weapons free zone, after Antarctica, Latin America (1963), and Southeast Asia (1995) and most of Africa (1996). There are other campaigns afoot, including a nuclear-free Transcaucasia and southern hemisphere, but the Central Asian treaty is the closest to actual implementation.

I recently spoke with Alla Karimova, head of the United Nations and International Political Organizations Division of the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the progress and prospects of this latest development in nuclear disarmament.

Ms. Karimova is a soft-spoken, graceful woman, a doctor of political science from the Russian Academy of Management in Moscow. She specialized in the interrelation of culture and politics and formerly lectured at the Tashkent State University.

She attended the Nonproliferation Treaty Conference 2000 in New York in May 2000, with 155 member states and more than 140 research organizations and NGOs participating. The Uzbek delegation was chosen as one of the deputy chairs of the conference and a member of its general committee, which, Ms Karimova told me, "we considered an honor." The working document on the process of creating a nuclear weapons free zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ) was accepted as an official document of the United Nations by the conference.

Present status of negotiations

There is already a project agreement which has been developed by the ongoing U.N.-sponsored group of experts from the five Central Asian countries. There is only one point of contention remaining, which they hope to settle soon. “It has been difficult balancing the interests of all the Central Asian countries and the five official nuclear powers,” Ms Karimov told me, “but there is broad agreement among us. The nuclear powers must recognize our zone and give so-called negative guarantees not to violate our nuclear weapon free zone.”

Rationale of the NWFZ

I asked Ms Karimov what is the point of a nuclear free zone now that Kazakhstan has destroyed its remaining nuclear weapons. She told me there were several vital issues which the zone addressed.

First, the nuclear explosions by Pakistan and India were very upsetting to Uzbekistan. While there are only 5 official nuclear powers, there are 30 countries which have the potential or have tested their own nuclear weapons. Iran is another close neighbour to Uzbekistan and is rumoured to be developing nuclear weapons.

Secondly, Uzbekistan sees itself as a vital force for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. Already there are 120 states which are members of the four existing NWFZs in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. So far there are no such zones on the Eurasian continent or involving countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Central Asian zone will be the first. “Just look at where we are: between Russia and China,” said Ms Karimova. “So a NWFZ here is very significant geo-politically.”

Finally, it is an important step in the prevention of atomic terrorism. Pakistan is highly involved in the situation in Afghanistan, which is right on Uzbekistan’s border. And then there are the Uzbek religious terrorists in Tajikistan and Afghanistan that have been very active recently.

In its "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the State Department added terrorist groups in Northern Ireland and Central Asia last year. The Central Asian group is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), described as a coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states opposed to the secular government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. This is the group that is thought to be responsible for five car bombs in Tashkent in February and which instigated two hostage crises in Kyrgyzstan late last year, including one which four Japanese and eight Kyrgyzstanis were held for two and a half months.

Openness of treaty and other considerations

Though the treaty is open in character, the Central Asian countries are committed as a distinct region to agree and implement the treaty according to their needs. Mongolia recently declared itself to be a NWFZ and wanted to be a party to the treaty. However, the Central Asian countries have no common border with Mongolia, and decided it was better to consolidate at this point rather than to expand.

Recently there has been talk of visa requirements for citizens of Central Asian countries travelling among the republics, which seems to be an indication that the countries are moving away from the spirit of integration which is implicit in the NWFZ and I suggested might hinder implementation of the treaty. However, Ms Karimova explained that “countries in other zones also require visas for travel between member countries, so this shouldn't be a problem. The visa regime I see as a temporary requirement which has been introduced to help fight terrorism and smuggling.”

The only problem with borders that the Central Asian countries faced is the Caspian Sea, where there are unresolved claims on control of the sea by the five countries bordering it. Ms Karimova said that they solved this “by simply excluding the sea from the treaty, including only the shoreline, which is not in contention.”

Japanese support

She commended the Japanese for their support and encouragement of the CANWFZ. They hosted conferences in Japan for the Central Asian countries in October 1999 and April 2000. The next meeting of the CANWFZ experts group will take place in Samarkand this autumn.

The idea of the CANWFZ was first raised by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has made several other proposals to promote peace in the region. In particular, Uzbekistan hosted a conference recently of the so-called 6+2, the six countries bordering Afghanistan plus the United States and Russia, to try to contain the civil war there. Last year at the OSCE Istanbul summit, he proposed setting up a centre for the struggle against terrorism, which has received broad international support. Considering these various initiatives together, we can say that what was once a political backwater is taking on a new role internationally.