MEDIA RELEASE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADEAUSTRALIA
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New Australian Safeguards And Non-Proliferation Office

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has today announced the
establishment of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) to play a central role in Australias efforts to promote a more secure world
environment.

Australia has had a strong commitment to non-proliferation and
disarmament with respect to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the
weapons of mass destruction. Recent actions by Australia internationally
include the initiation of a series of diplomatic measures to strengthen the
Biological Weapons Convention, ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear
Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and active support for commencement in the Conference
on Disarmament of negotiations on a Cut-off treaty to ban the production of
fissile material for nuclear weapons.

ASNOs principal objective is to enhance Australian and international
security through activities which contribute to effective regimes against the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. ASNO will combine the functions
of the Australian Safeguards Office (ASO), the Chemical Weapons Convention Office (CWCO), and the Australian
Comprehensive Test Ban Office (ACTBO) established following ratification of the
CTBT. ASNO will also assume responsibility for implementation aspects of the
Biological Weapons Convention protocol currently being negotiated in Geneva.

The focus of ASNO will be verification of treaty commitments. ASNO
will contribute to the development and operation of effective international
verification mechanisms designed to promote transparency and provide assurance
that non-proliferation obligations are being observed.

Within ASNO, ASO will continue its work with nuclear safeguards to
verify that peaceful use commitments for nuclear material and items are being
honoured. An important part of ASOs work is ensuring that Australias uranium exports remain in exclusively
peaceful use, in accordance with Australias bilateral safeguards agreements.

CWCO will continue to work with verification arrangements on the
production and use of specified toxic chemicals and their precursors, while ACTBOis set to implement the CTBT
in Australia including the establishment of significant elements of the
international system to detect any nuclear testing. The close parallels between
the nuclear non-proliferation regimes and the chemical weapons prohibition
regime will enable the most effective use to be made of available technical
expertise and administrative resources, and promote cross-fertilisation of
ideas between individual regimes, thereby further enhancing Australian
interests.

ASNO will be headed by a Director-General, Mr John Carlson, who
has held the statutory position of Director of Safeguards since 1989, and also
the position of Director CWCO since 1995.

Return to the ASNO Annual
Report Index | Annex IStatus of Australian IMS Stations