EU & Europe

Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudmundsson greeting U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson during John F. Kennedy’s funeral, November 1963. A few years earlier he had asked Ambassador Tyler Thompson whether the U.S. was storing nuclear weapons in Iceland. Credit: National Archives, Still Pictures Branch, RG 59-PR, box 9.

Iceland Debates Whether It Hosted Nuclear Weapons

Analysis by Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) - Recently released declassified documents by Washington have unleashed a debate whether the U.S. ever deployed nuclear weapons in Iceland, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since its foundation in 1949.

Experts are of the view that though the U.S. claims to have never deployed nuclear weapons in a country at a strategic juncture of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, it does not mean that it had no nuclear plans for Iceland. Previous research by Valur Ingimundarson and William Arkin demonstrates that during the Cold War Iceland was considered a potential storage site.

: Lowana Veal; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 07 October 2016

Photo: Construction of the Crimean bridge (March 2016). Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Sanctions Will Not Cause 'Regime Change' in Russia

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) - In the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis in March 2014, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia that have led to unintended consequences.

Crimea re-joined Russia following a referendum in which more than 96 percent of Russian speaking residents of Crimea voted to declare independence based on “the right of nations to self-determination” that is stipulated in Article 1 of the UN Charter.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 05 October 2016

Photo: Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-first session. UN Photo/Cia Pak

Russia Cautions Against Forgetting WWII Lessons

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions, which Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says, "cautions against forgetting the WWII lessons, reminds us of catastrophic consequences of the attempts to determine the fate of the world by suppressing legitimate interests of other States and peoples".

In a statement to the UN General Assembly's 71st session on September 23, Lavrov said: "The freedom of expression or peaceful assembly should not be used as a cover for condoning radical movements that profess the Nazi ideology and support the glorification of the Nazi and their accomplices."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 04 October 2016

Photo: Erlan Idrissov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-first session on 22 September 2016. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

Kazakhstan Stresses Diverse Initiatives at General Assembly

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - Ahead of joining the Security Council in January 2017 as its non-permanent member for two years, the Kazakh delegation has availed of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly to highlight in general debate as well as in multilateral and bilateral events the Central Asian country's plans and perspectives.

Addressing the General Assembly on September 24, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov said: "We take our election to the Security Council as an international recognition of the soundness and maturity of our foreign policy and a deserved achievement of our independence.”

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 25 September 2016

Photo: Visitors to the exhibition Everything You Treasure – For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons. Credit: IDN-INPS

Nuclear Disarmament Campaign Targets Norway's Bergen

By Lowana Veal

BERGEN (IDN) – Norway is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), enjoying the Alliance's protection as a nuclear umbrella state and yet widely known for its association with peace issues: not only for hosting the first international Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Oslo in March 2013.

“Norway (also) took the lead in the Oslo Process which culminated in the signing of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008," said Hitotsugu Terasaki, director general of peace and global issues at the Soka Gakkai International (SGI).

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; UN INSIDER; 09 September 2016

Photo: Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Creative Destruction in Macedonia

Viewpoint by Paul Mikov*

NEW YORK (IDN | INPS) - Bombs**, irrespective of the domains in which they are triggered, are always associated with and accompanied by destruction. This is so in theatres of military campaigns, as is in economics or politics. The only differentiation is in the nature of destruction and the possibilities that might be envisioned following, or out of, the destruction itself.

The concept of “creative destruction” that was coined by the economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942 seems to increasingly have correspondence with and applicability for the political situation that has been developing and emerging in Macedonia over the past year or two.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 06 September 2016

Field Trip to Semey, Kurchatov and the former Soviet Nuclear Weapon Test Site

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; ARMAMENTS; 06 September 2016

Photo (left to right): Kazakh Foreign Minister Idrissov with President Nazarbayev from Official Site of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan Claims 'Moral Right' to Push for Banning Nukes

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | ASTANA (IDN) – The fact that President Nursultan Nazarbayev shut down the Semipalatinsk test site "against the interests of the Soviet military authorities" even before the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan became "fully independent", is not widely known.

The decision reflected a strong political will, the courage to translate it into reality, and put a series of follow-up measures in place which, as Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov says, give Kazakhstan "the moral right to push for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, both globally and regionally".

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; 04 September 2016

Disarmament Talk with Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; UN INSIDER; 04 September 2016

Photo: (left to right) Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev; President Nazarbayev; Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo. Credit: www.kazembassy.org.uk

Kazakhstan Leads the Way to a Nuclear-Weapon Free World

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ASTANA (IDN) - As divisions between States on how to achieve nuclear disarmament grow, countries like Kazakhstan must lead the way to common ground and inclusive dialogue. Such leadership is urgently needed to make our world truly secure, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message delivered to the conference on 'Building a Nuclear-Free World'.

Welcoming participants, President Nursultan Nazarbayev explained why Kazakhstan was leading the way: "August 29, 1991 is marked by an event of historic significance both for our country and the whole world. 25 years ago, we legally stopped the most sinister experiment of militarism, which had been tormenting our land and our people for almost 40 years. Several decades before that event, the world tried to lower the threshold of nuclear threat through the processes of nuclear weapons reduction, and a moratorium of its testing."