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The creation of a NWFZ in
Europe has been considered several times since the 1950s. Polish Foreign
Minister Adam Rapacki first proposed the establishment of a NWFZ in Europe in 1958.
His idea is generally considered to be the origin of the concept of NWFZs.
However, since both NATO and Warsaw Pact countries relied on nuclear weapons for their
defense and security strategies, this idea remained a non-starter during the Cold
War.
Discussions of a European NWFZ resurfaced as the Cold War
concluded and the global military balance shifted dramatically. In 1990, Belarus
submitted a proposal encouraging the creation of a Central and Eastern European
NWFZ that would stretch from the Baltic to the Black Sea, encompassing three
Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Belarus, and Ukraine. Later,
in addition to these countries, the proposed NWFZ was expanded to
include the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia,
Hungary, and Moldova. However, few countries besides Belarus
supported the idea in the 1990s.
At the 2000 NPT Review Conference, Belarus submitted a
working paper again
advocating the creation of a Central and Eastern European NWFZ. The proposal
noted that the prerequisites for such a zone, such as "the de facto
absence of nuclear weapons from the region, strict compliance by all the states
of the region with the NPT obligations, strengthening of the nuclear
non-proliferation regime in the region by concluding Additional Protocols with
the IAEA and others," were already present. Nevertheless, most of the
countries Belarus proposed for inclusion in the zone saw joining NATO and the
European Union (EU), rather than creating a NWFZ, as more important for their
security and economic development. Faced with the expansion of NATO and the EU
to the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, even Belarus lost interest in a Central
and Eastern European NWFZ, and the idea had all but died by
2001.
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