Chinese concerns about U.S. missile defense systems are a source of great uncertainty, reducing Chinese support for promoting negotiations on the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT).
MFA officials, she said, tend toward continuing to support negotiation of an FMCT.
7. (C) A/S Gottemoeller raised the issue of Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) negotiations and asked what Australia,s views were on Ambassador Jazairy's non-paper.
On FMCT he emphasized the need to deal with existing stocks of fissile material.
A/S Gottemoeller said that policy still was evolving but that certain contours already should be clear: the President is serious about the Middle East peace process and has appointed a special envoy to that end; there is an evolving policy on Iran, which includes direct diplomacy; and the Administration is advocating the quick commencement of negotiations on a verifiable FMCT.
Another key priority for the U.S. is the FMCT.
Although it negotiated further nuclear reductions with Russia, the administration opposed reviving the CTBT, which the Republican-controlled US Senate had rejected in 1999, and negotiating a verifiable FMCT.
FMCT Policy Circle 8. (C) While GOP officials would not comment directly on internal FMCT policy deliberations over the summer, Maria Sultan argued that Pakistan's surprising reversal at the CD can be chalked up to two factors: a CD Ambassador too eager to join consensus and a lethargic policy process driven more by personalities than institutions.
Akram, she suggested, is part of the old guard of MFA ideologues and a long-time supporter of the Shannon mandate, which identified parameters for international consensus on an FMCT.
Unfortunately, the Chinese oppose a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) because they wanted to preserve their freedom of action and ability to make more nuclear weapons.
These steps include ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), conclusion of a verifiable Fissile Materials Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) that would ban production of fissile materials for weapons purposes and reducing the role of nuclear weapons, among many others.
