Brussels, 18/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 17 October, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, welcomed the nomination, by the United Nations secretary general, of the under-secretary of state to the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Jaako Laajava, as facilitator, and of Finland as the host country for a conference in 2012 on the creation of a zone free from nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. The UN seeks to convince all Middle East countries, including Israel and Iran, to attend the conference.
Ashton, who said the EU has always been fully committed to the establishment of such a zone, assured the secretary general, Jaakko Laajava, and the Finnish government of the EU's “full support in the process”. Britain's Foreign Minister William Hague also promised his country's support for the Finnish initiative.
The secretary general's announcement falls within the framework of the task entrusted to him and to the co-sponsors in the final document of the 2010 NPT Review Conference on the implementation of the 1995 Middle East Resolution. The non-proliferation treaty has been ratified by 189 states. Only Israel, India, Pakistan and Korea, which signed it but back-pedalled in 2003, are not signatories. (CG/transl.jl)