5/9/2003
Proliferation Security Initiative

On September 3-4, France hosted an informal meeting of the countries taking part in what is known as the Proliferation Security Initiative. This 11-country meeting is considering how to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction or missiles, as well as the materials and equipment that allow them to be manufactured for proliferation programs.

This meeting comes in the wake of two previous meetings, one held on June 12 in Madrid and the other on July 10-11 in Brisbane, Australia. The Proliferation Security Initiative is one of the efforts being made by the international community to counter the threat posed by proliferation as well as the risk of having weapons of mass destruction fall into the hands of terrorists. It is aimed at strengthening respect for the multilateral non-proliferation regime that is one of the pillars of our collective security and strategic stability.

This initiative has the vocation to extend to countries that share the international community’s objectives and concern over non-proliferation.

The declarations of the G8 summit in Kananaskis in 2002 and the 2003 summit in Evian, as well as the European Council declarations of Thessaloniki, underscored the necessity and urgency of countering proliferation activities. The UN Security Council has already affirmed that proliferation is a threat to peace and international security and should be prevented.

The Proliferation Security Initiative is designed to propose international commitments of a political nature that fall within the scope of international law.

The objective is to convince countries not to contribute to the transport of weapons of mass destruction and materials and equipment used for their fabrication, and to cooperate in order to keep such cargoes from reaching their destinations.

During the meeting, the participants from France, the United States, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Poland and Italy examined these proposals from a political, legal, operational and technical perspective.