Paris, 5 June – The WEU Assembly said on Wednesday that world arms control and disarmament commitments should be monitored more strictly. 
 
A report drawn up by Lluis Maria de Puig (Spain,Soc.) for the Defence Committee said that although significant progress has been made towards halting the arms race, “compliance (…) is not always total and the results cannot be regarded as necessarily irreversible. This worrying state of affairs calls for some serious thought to be given to the future of the processes that are already under way and to the new ones which need to be put in place in the years to come.” 
 
The arms control treaties, agreements and regimes “must be constantly reviewed and updated to avoid their being overtaken by technological progress,” and must be able to cover the “new areas of armaments activities..” the report called for the Council of Ministers to promote cooperation and coordination within the WEU, to continue to monitor all discussions on arms control and disarmament, and to take joint action on nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons proliferation. It should encourage all members to adopt a verification and control protocol in the annex to the Biological Weapons Convention, even if the United States does not sign up to it, and intensify efforts to obtain an unconditional resumption of weapons inspections in Iraq and to crack down on trafficking in small arms and light weapons.. 
 
Progress has been particularly marked in the European Union (EU) and neighbouring countries, but “the threat of a military build-up continues to hand over other regions of the world such as Asia,” said the report ‘     Monitoring international discussions on arms control and disarmament.’ “The proliferation of conventional and light weaponry fuels regions and internal conflicts that are detrimental to the economic, social and political development of the regions concerned,” it added. The report also expressed concern about the unilateral approach adopted by the United States, especially over nuclear and biological weapons, and the nuclear weapons programmes in India, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran 
 
The report and recommendations may be downloaded from the WEU Assembly website, address below.