Resolution 1540 renewal ‘shows Security Council flexibility’
The United Nations Security Council found consensus in a 30 November vote to extend the mandate of its subsidiary 1540 Committee, for a period of ten years until 30 November 2032.
The Committee monitors implementation of Council resolution 1540 (2004) that aims to prevent non-State actors from developing, acquiring, manufacturing, possessing, transporting, transferring or using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and their means of delivery and requires ‘all States to adopt and enforce appropriate laws to this effect as well as other effective measures to prevent the proliferation of these weapons and their means of delivery to non-State actors, in particular for terrorist purposes.’
Following the unanimous vote to renew, US representative to the United Nations Robert Wood said the US was nonetheless ‘disappointed that one Council member [unnamed] blocked efforts to make the work of the 1540 Committee more efficient and effective,’ and that various elements that had been proposed ‘would have given the Committee and its Group of Experts the tools they need to support Member States more equitably, consistently, and promptly, in combatting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, to and by non-state actors.’
Russian representative Vassily Nebenzia ‘underscored that the unanimous decision to extend the mandate of the Committee was the result of major efforts and the flexibility of all the Council members,’ according to UN reporting.
