Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot marking the 30th anniversary of the proposal for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty

Speech | 19-09-2023

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

At this moment of panoramic change, of vast opportunities and troubling threats, we must all ask ourselves what we can do (…) as a community of nations. We must once again dare to dream of what might be, for our dreams may be within our reach.’ These are the words US President Bill Clinton used in his address to the UN General Assembly in 1993. Thirty years ago. It was in this speech that a treaty to ban the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons was first proposed. 

Today, we must sadly conclude that, for now, some dreams remain out of reach. But that doesn’t mean that they can never be reached.  Once again, we are living in a moment of change, opportunities, and threats. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed nuclear weapons firmly back on the agenda. The trust that is needed for disarmament, and a nuclear-weapon-free world, is difficult to imagine at this moment. But doing nothing simply isn’t an option.

Smaller, but still meaningfull steps

So we must take smaller, but still meaningful steps, towards a world without nuclear weapons, while at the same time ensuring security for all. Finally starting the negotiations on this 30-year-old initiative should be one of those steps. It would also be a much-needed step.

For the first time in decades, nuclear arsenals are growing again instead of shrinking, and trust between the great powers is low. So we need to rebuild trust and confidence. The Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty would be a meaningful – and important – way to do this. So the Netherlands wants negotiations on the treaty to start immediately, in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. And in the meantime, we urge all States who have not yet done so to declare and maintain voluntary moratoria on the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosives.

These are steps we can take now, so we should take them. Thirty years ago, President Clinton urged our predecessors to dream of what might be. Today, let us move beyond dreams, and start the work needed to turn those dreams into reality.

Thank you.