UN General Assembly
1981

317. The Netherlands Government considers these negotiations, which will be pursued within the framework of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT], to be vitally important. This pertains also to the rest of the SALT process. Failure to achieve results in that process would lead to an unrestrained nuclear arms race. Such unrestrained vertical proliferation could increase the danger of a widening proliferation in a horizontal sense. 318. A viable nonproliferation regime is essential for the security and survival of us all. The threat of a steadily growing number of potential nuclear Powers calls for the speedy achievement of a consensus in the field of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Therefore, the Netherlands Government will continue to work actively for an international plutonium storage system and for the improvement and strengthening of the safeguards regime of IAEA.