Roger, I had been asked to chair the NGOs participating in the first NPT Review Conference in 1975 held in Geneva. As it was a conference of States Party and not a regular session of the U.N. disarmament committee, the NGO representatives had more opportunity to interact with the government delegates and the NGO texts were issued as conference documents. Thus I repeated Article VI even in my sleep. Someone thinking I had more influence than I did, I was invited to Moscow a couple of months after the end of the Review Conference to discuss with Soviet arms control people.
I also chaired the NGOs at the 1980 Review and participated in the 1985 and 1990 Review, after which the Reviews moved from Geneva to New York, and I could only follow from afar. Unfortunately good faith negotiations never progressed far enough, and disarmament as such has fallen off the U.N. agenda of pressing issues.
It may be that the current tensions such as India-Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran will bring the issue back to the front burner it deserves. Best wishes, René Wadlow
#The_UN_Goals #nuclear_disarm #apart #peace
