Region should join debate on nuclear weapons

In mid-July, Argentina and Brazil - two countries with which Jamaica has sound diplomatic relations and the potential for expanded economic relations - marked the 20th anniversary of their agreement for cooperation in the exclusive use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Like Jamaica, the South American neighbours are signatories to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which designates Latin America and the Caribbean a nuclear weapon-free zone. But their bilateral agreement is policed by the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for the Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC).

While this agreement may appear to be far removed from matters of immediate concern to Kingston, we feel that it is of more than passing relevance to Jamaica.

First, the Argentina-Brazil agreement helped to build trust between what was, hitherto, among the hemisphere's most suspicious and competitive states. Indeed, the political stability this pact fostered was part of the platform for broader economic cooperation in the Andean region. And there is little doubt that this stability contributed to the economic growth that has been enjoyed by Brazil and others in Latin America. Their increasing prosperity is good for hemispheric partners, including ourselves.

Nuclear for good, not evil

Further, the Brazil-Argentina arrangement offers a potentially useful model for countries suspicious of the nuclear ambitions of their neighbours and is one that might have been beneficial to antagonistic neighbours such as India and Pakistan.

More critically, the ABACC arrangement, as well as Tlateloco, the first treaty to establish a nuclear weapon-free zone, represents a powerful intellectual and moral force for shift from the harnessing of nuclear energy primarily for destructive purposes to economic and social good, to benefit all mankind. As it now stands, the bulk of nuclear research and technology is geared towards weapons development.

Against that backdrop, this newspaper agrees with the remarks of Héctor Timerman and Antonio Patriota, the foreign ministers, respectively, of Argentina and Brazil, that the "international community should attach the highest priority to nuclear disarmament as part of the efforts to prevent proliferation and to build a peaceful and safer world, free from the threat of weapons of mass destruction".

Pressure on rogues

The declared nuclear powers, led by the United States, should, in that regard, aggressively pursue their obligations under Article VI to pursue good-faith negotiations towards complete nuclear disarmament, rather than the stop-start and partial arrangements that have characterised talks on nuclear and other strategic arms.

Such serious negotiations by the major powers would build moral pressure on the nuclear recalcitrants and supposed rogue nations to come to the bargaining table. At the same time, resources - intellectual and economic - would be freed to concentrate on developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. A country like Jamaica, with a serious energy deficit and having to pay expensively for what it imports, would be a likely beneficiary.

Indeed, our Government should not only join Argentina and Brazil in this latest call for new energy on nuclear disarmament, but should encourage its partners in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to do likewise. Additionally, CARICOM member states that have not yet done so should quickly ratify the revised protocols of the Treaty of Tlatelolco.