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The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have joined environmental and peace groups around the world in endorsing a statement that will be delivered to a conference at the United Nations.
The 2024 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee will meet today to begin work to make preparations for the next conference of signing to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (or NPT).
The statement will be delivered to committee delegates by Jemila Rushton, Acting Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Australia. The NFLAs are a member of ICAN.
Particular reference is made to the adverse impact of AUKUS, the military alliance forged between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in opposition to China, on geopolitics in the Pacific.
Amongst its more controversial elements is the provision of nuclear-powered submarines by the other partners to Australia. We share the concern of other signatories that AUKUS violates in spirit both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Rarotonga – South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. The submarines will be powered by weapons-grade nuclear fuel, supplied by the other partners and will operate from Australian bases within a nuclear free zone.
Although present plans provide for these submarines to be conventionally armed, it is not inconceivable that over time they could be rearmed with nuclear weapons. The Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament, Peter Dutton, is currently actively lobbying for Australia to establish a civil nuclear programme and such a programme is critical to support the development of nuclear weapons capacity.
The statement has also been endorsed by our colleagues Labrats, CND Cymru and Together against Sizewell C.
Ends… //For more information please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Note for Editors
Statement to the 2024 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee, July 23 2024
Delivered by: Jemila Rushton, Acting Director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Australia
Honourable Chair and Distinguished Delegates,
We gather today in uncertain and dangerous times. All nine nuclear armed states are investing in modernising their arsenals, none are winding back policies for their use. The number of available deployed nuclear weapons is increasing. We do not have the luxuries of time or inaction.
Against this background where the proliferation of nuclear weapons is an ongoing concern, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America continue to further develop AUKUS, an expanded trilateral security partnership between these three governments.
AUKUS has two pillars. Pillar One was first announced in September 2021 and relates to information, training and technologies being shared by the US and UK to Australia to deliver eight nuclear powered submarines to Australia. Vessels which, if they eventuate, will utilise significant quantities of highly enriched uranium (HEU). It also allows Australia to purchase existing US nuclear submarines. Currently, Australia is committing billions of dollars to both US and UK submarine industry facilities as part of the AUKUS agreement, potentially enabling the further development of nuclear armed capability in these programs.
Distinguished delegates, two years ago, during the 2022 NPT Review Conference, many governments expressed concern that the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal would undermine the NPT, increase regional tensions, lead to proliferation, and threaten nuclear accidents in the ocean. There remains an urgent need to critique the nuclear proliferation risks posed by AUKUS.
The Australian decision to enter into agreements around nuclear powered submarines was made on the assumption that it would be permitted to divert nuclear material for a non-prescribed military purpose, by utilising Paragraph 14 of the IAEA’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA). The ‘loophole’ of Paragraph 14 potentially allows non-nuclear armed states to acquire nuclear material, which would be removed from IAEA safeguards.
Australia’s proposed acquisition of large quantities of HEU outside of usual IAEA safeguards and scrutiny jeopardises nonproliferation efforts and fissile material security. This conference has the mandate to prepare recommendations for the upcoming Review Conference to strengthen rather than weaken the global nonproliferation regime by moving to close the Paragraph 14 loophole. States represented here today should negotiate the closure of the Paragraph 14 loophole in the NPT, as it permits Australia and other non-nuclear armed states to obtain nuclear-powered submarines and potentially weapons-grade HEU.
To eliminate the risk of non nuclear weapons states acquiring nuclear weapons grade HEU, all states, including AUKUS members, should refrain from sharing the technology and materials that will be transferred if Australia and others acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The paragraph 14 loophole undermines the NPT and needs to be closed.
Pillar Two of AUKUS plans to enhance the joint capabilities and interoperability between the partners, and may draw in other countries to AUKUS. This move is vastly out of step with a strong sense of Pacific regionalism and the long-standing commitment to a Nuclear Free Pacific. The South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Rarotonga) is being put under strain in this agreement. It is of grave concern that currently Japan, Canada and Aotearoa/New Zealand are actively considering their engagement with AUKUS Pillar 2.
We are concerned that the AUKUS trilateral partnership, and any further expansions will exacerbate regional tensions, fuel an arms race and increase risks of war in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly involving China and the United States, and will increase the danger of nuclear escalation in any such conflict.
Within Australia, First Nations communities have expressed deep concern about the imposition of new military and radioactive waste facilities on their lands. First Nations and broader communities across Australia and throughout the Pacific have noted that AUKUS is part of a rapid militarisation of the region, and raises the ever-present threat of nuclear conflict. Recognising the disproportionate impacts of previous nuclear activities on First Nations or Indigenous Peoples, and the on-going legacies of nuclear weapons testing and activities in the region, there is deep concern for what AUKUS will mean for sovereignty of Small Island States and its impacts on Indigenous lands and Peoples.
Distinguished delegates, the fuel for HEU naval propulsion reactors is weapons-grade, and the spent fuel is weapons-usable. HEU is the most suitable material for ready and rapid conversion into a nuclear bomb. While removing HEU from a submarine would not be an easy process, the possibility of diverting such material for weapons purposes cannot be ruled out. Meaningful safeguards are extremely limited when the material is on a stealth platform that can disappear for 6 months at a time.
With the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), there is a mandate to strengthen existing non-proliferation mechanisms. By joining the TPNW, governments can legally confirm that they will not acquire or host nuclear weapons, nor assist with their use or threat of use. AUKUS members should make firm their commitments to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament by joining the TPNW as a matter of urgency. Thank you.
Endorsed by:
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Australia (Australia)
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, France (France)
- LABRATS (United Kingdom)
- Vrede vzw (Belgium)
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (International)
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Australia)
- Peace Action Wisconsin (USA)
- Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Ireland)
- PEOPLES FEDERATION FOR NATIONAL PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT (PEFENAP)
- The Green Institute (Australia)
- Independent & Peaceful Australia Network (Australia)
- Friends of the Earth, Australia (Australia)
- Stop AUKUS WA (Australia)
- Nuclear Truth Project (USA/Australia)
- Top End Peace Alliance (Australia)
- AidWatch (Australia)
- Environment Victoria (Australia)
- Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church (Australia)
- The Human Survival Project (Australia)
- People for Nuclear Disarmament (Australia)
- Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (USA)
- TerraBiome
- Marshall Islands Students Association, Fiji.
- Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
- CODEPINK
- Beyond Nuclear International
- Abolition 2000 Nuclear Risk Reduction Working Group
- Fiji Women’s Rights Movement
- The Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD)
- SEARCH Foundation (Australia)
- Marrickville Peace Group (Australia)
- Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition (Australia)
- Climate Justice Union (Australia)
- Justice and Peace Office, Sydney Archdiocese (Australia)
- Queensland Conservation Council (Australia)
- Wage Peace (Australia)
- RightsNow Foundation (Pakistan)
- Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK)(India)
- Quakers Australia
- CND Cymru (Wales)
- The Communist Party of Australia, CPA
- Together Against Sizewell C (UK)
- Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist)
- Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition (AAAC)
- Christians for Peace Newcastle (Australia)
- HOPE Inc (Australia)
- Hunter Peace Group (Australia)
- The Pacific Conference of Churches
- International Volunteers for Peace Australia
- Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (Australia)
- Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear (Spain)
- Nuclear Free West Australia (Australia)
- FundiPau (Foundation for Peace) (Spain)
- Group of Scientists and Engineers for a Non Nuclear Future (Catalonia)
- Peace Boat
- Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) (Australia)
- Nuclear Hotseat Podcast
- Shepparton Interfaith Network (Australia)
- Youth Arts New York/Hibakusha Stories
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
- Peace and Conflict Studies Institute Australia (Australia)
- Australian Education Union (AEU) (Australia)
- Nillumbik Climate Action Team (Australia)
- Conservation Council of Western Australia (Australia)
- JA! Justica Ambiental! (Mozambique)
- Urani? Naamik (Greenland)
- NOAH Friends of the Earth Denmark (Denmark)
- Lawyers for Peace (Australia)
- Medact UK (UK)
- Marshallese Education Initiative (The Marshall Islands)
- World Without Wars and Violence (Greece)
- UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities
