De Facto Nuclear Weapons States and the NPT Regime

Session: Regency Room
Date/Time: February 20, 2013 / 14:00-15:15

Moderator: Aruni Wijewardane, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Speakers: Ariel Levite, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Senate of Pakistan
Manpreet Sethi, Center for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

Rapporteur: Paolo Venneri, Korea Advanced Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

Press Release Brief

1. Israeli viewpoint that “we fundamentally do not want to be a Nuclear Weapon State”; and that the US-India nuclear deal was the ultimate blow to efforts to bring Israel closer to the non-proliferation regime.

2. Pakistani viewpoint that each state’s nuclear weapons should each be viewed in the context of their perceived state security and survival

3. Indian viewpoint that the US-Indian nuclear agreement represents a positive recognition of responsible non-proliferation behavior.

4. Prospects of getting Iran or North Korea to give up their nuclear programs will remain “an elusive goal.”

5. Israel, India, and Pakistan do not consider their de facto nuclear weapons state status as the major limiting factor within the more fundamentally flawed and inequitable NPT.