Americas

Americas

Security Council seeks expanded committee to prevent WMD proliferation

29 June 2012 22:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution to request UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to expand the current committee in charge of curbing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Security Council made the decision as the 15-nation UN body adopted a resolution on the committee, known as the 1540 committee, which was set up by the Security Council in April 2004.

The resolution noted the "significantly increased workload of the committee over the course of its mandate," the resolution said, requesting the UN chief "to increase the size of the group of experts" to "up to nine experts."

Also in the new resolution, the Security Council decided to extend the mandate of the committee until April 25, 2021.

Since the establishment of the 1540 committee, member states are obliged to ensure strong measures are taken against the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

On April 28, 2004, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1540 under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter which affirms that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery constitutes a threat to international peace and security.