Brussels, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The North Atlantic Council (NAC) and the Political and Security Committee (PSC) of the European Union met, on Tuesday morning, at the NATO Headquarters. The meeting focussed on combatting arms proliferation and was addressed by the US Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation, John Wolf. The other participants included NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, Ambassador Marie-Louise Overvad, the Danish PSC Committee Representive and Greek PSC Representative, Ambassador Tryphon Paraskevopoulos.
John Wolf told reporters that he had not attended the meeting to talk about Iraq, highlighting on Washington's desire to step up dialogue and cooperation with NATO allies and EU partners in order to combat arms proliferation, which is getting worse with "more proliferators, demanders and suppliers" and dual use technologies. In the list of countries to be monitored, he cited Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Libya. He said the EU and the US should not get diverted into interminable debates about the structure of non-proliferation, but concentrate on the substance in the face of genuine dangers. (See p.6 of yesterday's Europe on ambassador Henrik Ree Iversen's address on behalf of the EU to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva.)