Translation of "Colloque Le contrôle de l'armement et l'emploi " (French → English) :

Colloquium on Arms Control and Employment

Conference on Weapons Control and Employment

Finally, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms has three recommendations: one, that Canada's nuclear non-proliferation arms control and disarmament policy be revised so that it is in full compliance with the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons; two, that Canada withdraw within five years from all military alliances where nuclear weapons are operational or can conceivably be used; and three, that Canada join in a quest for common security with other middle powers to press the nuclear weapons states to (a) immediately de-alert their nuclear weapons, (b) immediately sign a no fir ...[+++]st use pledge, and (c) sign before the year 2000 a convention that sets out a binding timetable for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The current hearings of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Canada's current nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, and disarmament policies, and the announcement at the Madrid Summit in July 1997 that NATO will review its nuclear policy once again, provide an unprecedented opportunity for Canadians to call upon both NATO and Russia to negotiate a no-first-use regime and to restructure their military forces accordingly.

Between 2005 and early 2011, I had lead responsibility in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade for several arms control instruments: The UN Programme of Action for Small Arms and Light Weapons, for a few years when I first ran the department; the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects; the Anti-Personnel Landmine Treaty, more commonly known as the Ottawa convention; and I had the grea ...[+++]t honour of leading the Canadian delegation throughout the negotiation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

These are: increasing European military capability, so as to ensure the credibility of its foreign and defence policy objectives; improving the interoperability of defence equipment, at both intra-European and transatlantic levels, with a view to guaranteeing the security and stability of Europe and of the Atlantic area; establishing, in this framework, conditions favourable to developing a competitive and viable European defence equipment industry; better use of public monies in this field, in particular to prevent overlapping, by promoting industrial and technological interdependency and research linked to this sector; involving the new enlargement countries ...[+++] in this process of industrial reconversion; promoting adequate rules governing competition and security of supply while taking account of the gradual opening up of the arms markets; creating financial support measures for new defence equipment, in particular to develop equipment to protect the Union’s external borders, including its maritime borders; and, finally, the need to improve parliamentary monitoring and follow-up mechanisms for security and defence policy at both levels at which it is implemented - the European and the national levels - with the appropriate involvement of the respective parliamentary representations.