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ndonesia, representing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), has voiced concerns over restrictions of access to nuclear materials and technology for civilian use, during a UN meeting in New York, saying that developing countries should be granted the same right to nuclear use as developed nations.

The UN’s First Committee meeting, which addresses nuclear disarmament and international security issues, started its month-long meeting on Monday.

In a speech on behalf of NAM during the committee’s opening session, Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN in New York, Hasan Kleib, said that the non-proliferation agenda and security issues did not justify restricting developing nations’ access to nuclear material and technology.

“The Movement continues to note with concern that undue restrictions on exports to developing countries of material, equipment and technology, for peaceful purposes persist,” said Hasan in his speech made available to the media.

Hasan said the restriction had been imposed because of nuclear proliferation concerns voiced by nuclear nations regardless of the fact that all signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) were entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purpose.

“NAM emphasizes that proliferation concerns are best addressed through multilaterally negotiated, universal, comprehensive and non-discriminatory agreements.

“Non-proliferation control arrangements should be transparent and open to participation by all states, and should ensure that they do not impose restrictions on access to material, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes required by developing countries for their continued development.”

Hasan said that while developing nations were having difficulties gaining access to nuclear materials and technology, the nuclear weapon states were not yet fully committed to disarmament.

The recently held five-yearly Non- Proliferation Treaty summit in New York came short of setting a deadline for total disarmament, owing to a lack of commitment by nuclear states.

Hasan said NAM had urged for the start of negotiations on total nuclear disarmament by 2025, citing a lack of concrete steps toward disarmament.

Indonesia has led the NAM in its disarmament agenda and has voiced concerns that the nuclear disarmament agenda had been sidelined by non-proliferation issues, in particular over the West suspicions that Tehran has secretly developed its own nuclear weapon.

The US conducted its own nuclear summit in Washington in April that addresses security at nuclear facilities but did not touch on disarmament.

The US summit was contested with another summit in Iran that highlighted the need for immediate disarmament. Hasan said NAM would like to ensure that NPT signatories committed to the three pillars of NPT and not only prioritized their own agenda.

Indonesia has supported Iran to develop its own civilian nuclear facilities but also calls for Tehran to fully cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog agency.