UN General Assembly
1995

and Extension Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in New York. The Summit on Social Development called attention to the impact of the world economic system on the poor and underprivileged and helped to project new ideas for alternative models of social development. It also allowed 17 the renewal of the world commitment to resolve the problems of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. For its part, the non-proliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970, is important in several ways. It enshrines an undertaking between the five nuclear-weapon States to begin serious nuclear disarmament negotiations and the non-nuclear countries not to acquire nuclear weapons in return for access to peaceful nuclear technology. It is a major international agreement the aim of which is to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and build confidence among the nuclear-weapon States towards a reduction of their arsenals. The Treaty also provides the basis for legitimate trade in nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The indefinite extension of the nuclear