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Cartel to promote nuclear power sales meets in New Zealand

Although the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG ) claims to serve the interests of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, its consultations and decision- making are closed to 144 of the 190 states party to the treaty. It is not accountable to the decision-making organs of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Thrashing out nuclear deals a juggling act for New Zealand, Stuff.co.nz, By BOB RIGG   24/06 New Zealand has found itself between a rock and a hard place as it chairs a meeting trying to juggle competing superpower positions on who gets enriched uranium and nuclear technology that could encourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

This week Christchurch is hosting a meeting of a little known entity called the Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG. As many as 46 states will be represented at the meeting, which will be chaired by the Government, in response to a personal invitation from United States President Barack Obama to Prime Minister John Key………….Although the NSG claims to serve the interests of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, its consultations and decision- making are closed to 144 of the 190 states party to the treaty. It is not accountable to the decision-making organs of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The US prevented China from joining the NSG until 2004 but relented amidst the geopolitical aftershock of September 11……………..

China is now a superpower in waiting, which even the US can no longer ignore. And the US desperately wants the support of China over matters such as Iran. The NSG will be damned if it approves a Pakistan-China deal and damned if it does not.

New Zealand is chairing the decisive plenary session, a job that will test to the full its ability to function effectively in a murky and complex environment that will pit many of its allies and trading partners against each other – especially since, after nine years in opposition, the Government lacks senior ministers with recent experience of multilateral decision-making, let alone of the labyrinthine politics of disarmament and non-proliferation.

Bob Rigg is a former chairman of the New Zealand National Consultative Committee on Disarmament.

Thrashing out nuclear deals a juggling act for New… | Stuff.co.nz

June 25, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, politics international | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, reactors, uranium