Foreign Minister Tuomioja commends Blix’s courageous reporting on weapons of mass destruction

Press release 168/2006
1 June, 2006


Dr Blix’s report is a new and important contribution promoting the abandoning of weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said on Thursday, when the international Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission presented its report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Chairman of the General Assembly in New York. Finland has closely followed the work of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Commission jointly organised a seminar on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, which was held in Helsinki in spring 2005.

The world’s leading experts in many fields have taken part in the Commission’s work. In the current international situation, the broad geographical composition and other representativeness of the people compiling the report increase the weight of the report itself.

A central objective of Blix’s report is to revive multilateral disarmament processes. This is not a new issue; the previous attempt to address this matter was made at the UN General Assembly in autumn 2005. Consensus wasn’t reached then, but the international situation from one day to the next shows that the goal is worth another try, Tuomioja states. A multilateral approach is also the cornerstone of the EU’s strategy on weapons of mass destruction.

According to Tuomioja, Blix’s report is also right in that it documents, with regret, how nuclear states are renewing their arsenals and ignoring the obligation to disarm, which is included in the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The target groups of Blix’s report, aside from Governments, are parliaments, political parties, citizens’ organisations, the mass media and the public at large. Disarmament can no longer be an issue only for diplomats’ closed conferences; rather, information about it must be disseminated and discussed as openly as possible, the Foreign Minister contends. In this way, public pressure to implement disarmament goals is also built up.

Tuomioja commends Blix’s report for daring to discuss topical issues pertaining to weapons of mass destruction without fearing the reactions of the countries named therein. Nor does the report hesitate to approach complex entities that aren’t suited to black-and-white, either-or thinking. An example of this is the increasing use of nuclear energy, which is justified from the perspectives of securing the energy supply and combating climate change but which also presents the risk that nuclear enrichment technology will spread.

At least as important as Blix’s report is the international debate on its conclusions and their follow-up, Tuomioja points out. The report’s 60 far-reaching recommendations on speeding up disarmament of weapons of mass destruction and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons constitute work for a long time. It’s important that the discussion is kicked off quickly and that the first concrete results are reached soon.

The Government of Finland intends to invest in continuing this work during the EU Presidency soon to begin. Let us hope that the report will spur broader discussion in Finland, too, Tuomioja states.

Additional information: First Secretary Mari Linnapuomi, Unit for Arms Control, tel. +358 9 1605 6030, mobile tel. +358 40 708 9535; and Press Attaché to the Minister Susanna Parkkonen, tel. +358 9 1605 5012