Government considers it essential to follow if this process of comprehensive disarmament is to be acceptable to all members of the international community. First, disarmament should be a process of asymmetrical reductions, based on the concept of levelling out. The States more heavily armed and those with the more sophisticated weapons systems have a special responsibility to disarm and should be the catalysts of the whole process. Disarmament is essential to all members of the international community, and thus each of them, even the smallest and the poorest, has the right to have a say on a matter intimately linked to its survival. Disarmament has to proceed from the most threatening weapons to the least, and concentrate, as its utmost priority, on nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. CD/PV.554 9 (Mr. Azambuja, Brazil ) Disarmament should never be used as a pretext to deny developing countries or other States access to science and technology, on the assumption that if civilian advanced technologies are mastered by the newcomers they will necessarily be diverted to military uses, as has happened in some, but not all, of the States which are the sources of those technologies. Disarmament should not be used as a pretext to perpetuate inequalities in the international system, be it in the military, scientific, technological or economic fields. Disarmament should not tie up resources released by cuts in military spending in highly redundant and expensive systems of verification. Disarmament is as global a process as the protection of the environment or any other universal item in the agenda of the United Nations. It does not allow for exclusive regional treatment, except in the conventional dimension. In any case, in a world where nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missile technology and naval power enable their possessors to reach every 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the concept of disarmament and its implications on the international community, specifically focusing on the responsibility of heavily armed states to disarm and the need for a global approach. It also touches on the theme of science and technology, highlighting the importance of not using disarmament as a pretext to deny developing countries access to these advancements. These themes suggest that the text is more closely related to international relations and global governance rather than a specific economic or social issue.

**Category**
International relations, Science and technology