Trump-led US government is requesting countries to withdraw their ratification from a United Nations nuclear weapons ban treaty. The treaty will become international law after it gets ratified by 50 countries. Friday is the tentative date for its entry. The United States is joined by other nuclear powers and countries owning nuclear weapons.
The US claimed that the treaty will backtrack the efficiency of the half-century-old Non-Proliferation Treaty. Proponents of the treaty opposed by saying it will rather help in the implementation of NPT.
The real contention for nuclear power is that while NPT prevented the proliferation of nuclear weapons in non-nuclear nations, the new treaty will try to place a blanket ban on all nations including nuclear powers.
The TPNW treaty
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was spearheaded by International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The campaign won Noble Prize for peace in 2017.
The treaty places an obligation on ratifying countries to abstain from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing or else acquiring, possessing or making a stockpile of nuclear weapons under any circumstances. The transfer of nuclear weapons and explosive devices is also banned under the treaty. Also, no signatory shall threaten to use nuclear weapons. They shall instead propagate the treaty to other nations.
The treaty got approval by UN General Assembly in July 2017. 122 countries out of the total 193 voted in favour of the treaty. The five main nuclear superpowers- US, China, France, Russia and Britain opposed the motion in General Assembly. The proceedings were also boycotted by some other countries who are known to possess nuclear weapons. These countries include India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Many of the allies of these countries and America’s NATO allies too opposed the treaty.
What if it gets ratified?
The treaty will become international law after it is ratified by 50 countries. So far 47 countries have ratified it. Beatrice Fihn, executive director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is confident that that the treaty will be ratified by 50 nations before Friday on October 24. The day is celebrated as United Nations day since 1948.
The United States is on its toes to prevent ratification by 50 nations. It has appealed countries to withdraw their support from the treaty.
US opposition to the treaty
The United States has sent letters to ratifying countries asking them to withdraw. The letter reads that all the five main nuclear powers and NATO allies will together fight against the treaty.
The letter said that TPNW has retarding effect on the disarmament process. The letter from Trump administration alarmed that the new treaty will dismantle the operations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. NPT is the most important disarmament treaty for nuclear weapons in present. It is, however, criticised by many non-nuclear nations because it creates an imbalance between the countries that have nuclear weapons and those who don’t have.
The letter cautioned that even though it is the sovereign decision of any country to sign the treaty or not, but the signatories are making a strategic error by ratifying it. It urged them to withdraw their instrument of ratification or accession.
The response from the proponents of the treaty
Beatrice Fihn has discarded the letter’s claim that new treaty will dismantle NPT, as an outright lie. She said that the goal of both treaties coincides.
While NPT restricted non-nuclear nations from acquiring nuclear weapons with an assurance that the nuclear countries will go for gradual disarmament. The nuclear nations also assured non-nuclear nations for access to the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Fihn said that TPNW will further help the implementation of NPT. She alleged that nuclear powers are worried because their disarmament is nearing closer with the new treaty.
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has also welcomed the initiative. He said that TPNW along with ongoing negotiations of NPT and New START policy will lead to a nuclear-weapon-free world.
