NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT)

DEFINATION
The Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear weapons also known as the Nuclear Non-
proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a landmark international treaty aimed to prevent the spread of nuclear
weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy
and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
Opened for signature on 1st July 1968, the Treaty came into force in 5th March 1970.
Initially it was intended to operate for a period of 25 years but during the Review
Conference of 11th May 1995, the treaty was extended to continue indefinitely.
The NPT is the world’s most successful nuclear multilateral non-proliferation agreement
with 190 members as parties to the Treaty, and is the only treaty that involves a binding
commitment to disarmament by the five nuclear weapon states.

HOW & WHY DID IT COME ABOUT?

The measures taken to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons were evident from the mid
19th century. On 20th November, 1959, on the initiative of Ireland, the UN General Assembly adopts a
resolution by which it suggest that the Ten-Nation Disarmament Committee consider the feasibility
of and an international agreement by which the nuclear-weapon states would not hand over control
of those weapons to other Sates and that non-nuclear weapon states would not manufacture such
weapons. On 20th December 1960, another resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly by
which it calls upon both the nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states to agree upon prevention of
wider dissemination of nuclear weapons as a temporary measure to stop the further proliferation.
It is on 17th August, 1965 where the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty draft was submitted
by the United States to the United Nations Disarmament Committee. On 1 st July, 1968, the United
States, United Kingdom and 60 other countries signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Opened
for signature on 1st July 1968, the Treaty came into force in 5th March 1970 when 40 non-nuclear
and 3 nuclear powers-United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union completed the process of
ratification.
The development of highly destructive nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction created an atmosphere of balance of terror in international relations.
Knowing that if any kind of nuclear conflict or war would happen, then that would bring
upon a huge catastrophe upon all of mankind, a large number of States came out advocating
measures to prevent such conflicts. And believing that the proliferation of nuclear weapons would
seriously enhance the danger of nuclear war, therefore in order to prevent it, they believed that it is
necessary to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
There were a number of reasons which actually contributed to the emergence of the Nuclear
Non-proliferation treaty. Some of these were :-
a) Nuclear Nightmare – During the Cold war period, the stockpile of nuclear war-heads by the
two super-powers-United States of America and the Soviet Union, had assumed threatening
dimensions. This made the two countries to realize the futility of such an arms race.
b) Nuclear Proliferation – It was contrary to the interest of the two Super-powers that more
nations should acquire nuclear technology thereby posing a threat to their supremacy. The
two Super-powers were not at ease to see Britain, France and China emerging as nuclear
powers.
c) Fear factor – For the first time in history, nations with nuclear weapons came to acquire the
overkill capacity, i.e the capacity to destroy the world several times over. This overkill
capacity induced a sense of fear among the small and weak states allowing the nuclear
powers to achieve their interest in the world in complete disregard to the opinion and
wishes of the other states.
 d) Blackmail in International Relations – The nuclear powers gained the ability to use ‘threat of
n-weapons for securing their desired objectives in relation with the non-nuclear states. This
impelled them to maintain their n-power superiority and to prevent non-nuclear states from
securing n-weapons and n-technology in the name of world peace.
e) Dependency – By developing and expanding their nuclear technology through numerous
research and experiments, the nuclear powers can also become the producer of important
nuclear technology which will be required by the non-nuclear states as such making them
always dependent upon the former for better technology be it for peaceful purposes or for
weapons development.
f) There is also a need for partial or complete disarmament at a later stage of human
development which will be envisaged in the treaty.

OBJECTIVES OF THE TREATY

The NPT has three primary goals :-
1) Preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons
2) Facilitating international co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy under
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
3) Encouraging negotiations on nuclear arms control.

FEATURES AND PROVISIONS

1) Each Nuclear Weapon State(NWS) agree not to transfer to any Non-nuclear Weapon
State(NNWS), nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such
weapons either directly or indirectly and not to assist or encourage any NNWS to
manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices.(Article I)
2) Every NNWS agrees not to receive from NWS, nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive
devices or control over such weapons, explosives either directly or indirectly; not to
manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices and not to seek or receive any assistance
in their manufacture.(Article II)
3) Every NNWS party to the treaty must accept the safeguards placed by the IAEA, for the
purpose of verifying that all signatories comply with the terms given by the NPT.
4) Nothing in this treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the parties
to the treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this treaty.
5) Signatories agree that any benefit derived from the peaceful use of nuclear technology
should be made available to NNWS on a discriminatory basis, and that the cost charged to
such parties should be made as low as possible.
6) The treaty shall be subject to ratification by signatory states. Instruments of ratification and
instrument of accession shall be deposited with the government of states which are hereby
designated the depository governments.
7) The States undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to
the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to the nuclear disarmament
under strict and effective international control.
8) Each party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw from the
treaty if it decided that extra-ordinary events, related to the subject-matter of this treaty,
have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country. It shall give notice of such
withdrawal to all parties to the treaty and the UN Security Council three months in
advance.(Article VII)
9) The treaty calls for a review conference every five years to assess the progress on achieving
the treaty’s objectives and provide opportunities to discuss new measures to strengthen the
treaty.
 10) Article X of the NPT called for a conference of states-parties to be held 25 years after the
treaty’s entry into force in-order to determine whether the treaty would remain in force
indefinitely or for other additional periods of time.

IMPACT ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

A. POINTS of SUCCESS –
1) The NPT is now close to universalisation for only four States have not joined it – India,
Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan.
2) The treaty has done remarkably well compared to what everyone expected in the early
1960s. It has helped in bringing security and peace to all countries and significantly reduced
the likelihood of a nuclear war.
3) The NPT has limited the spread of nuclear weapons across the globe to a considerable
extend. Since the treaty entered into force, great progress has been made on nuclear
disarmament, evidenced by the elimination of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons.
4) There were also profound benefits that the treaty has brought for these last 50 years in
terms of access to the benefits of nuclear technology and nuclear applications for all of
mankind, not just in the area of power generation but in applications that stretch across
health, industry, life sciences, medicine, agriculture, industry research and scientific
development.
5) The treaty made certain nation-states to rethink about the sustainable growth of mankind.
In- order to safeguard the security of the people, these nations decided to stop the further
proliferation of nuclear arms and equipments.
For instance,
a) There were States that gave up plans to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
e.g., Brazil, Argentina, South Korea & Taiwan
b) There were States that has the nuclear weapons and nuclear technological capability but
they themselves voluntarily decide to stop the further proliferation.
e.g., Ukraine, Belarus & South Africa
6) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) played a critical role in NPT
implementation, both in promoting co-operation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and
to apply safeguards and verify that nuclear programs are entirely peaceful.

B. POINTS of FAILURES –
1) India, Israel and Pakistan never joined the treaty and North Korea withdrew.
India decided against NPT because it held it to be discriminatory in nature. India’s argument
was that the treaty puts the five nuclear haves in a privileged position, it was designed to
perpetuate the gap between the nuclear and non-nuclear nations; to make non-nuclear
nations dependent upon the nuclear nations; and which did not provide either for
disarmament/nuclear disarmament or for preventing the nuclear programmes of France
and China who became part of the treaty only after becoming sizeable nuclear powers.
2) It is discriminatory in nature as it enables the already existing nuclear powers to carry out
nuclear tests without any restraint, creating an imbalance between the nuclear and non
nuclear states. This imbalance is further accentuated by the fact that by signing the NPT, the
 NNWS agree to allow the IAEA to monitor their internal nuclear activities. This results in an
international control only for the NNW states.
3) NPT failed to check the armament race among the nuclear powers. The treaty lays down the
limits of nuclear proliferation yet it does not forbid its dissemination. The signatory nuclear
powers remain free to place their weapons in friendly or allied countries provided that these
countries do not have the ‘use of the keys’, i.e., the power to decide to use these weapons.
Their territory can only be used as a repository, the former depository country remains in
sole control of the nuclear game.
4) In 1998, India and Pakistan also emerged as nuclear weapon states.
5) The treaty also creates a sense of insecurity because the 5(five) NWS are allowed to conduct
experiments and test of their nuclear weapons in the ocean, land, air space polluting and
destroying the environment and bringing insecurity upon all.
6) Certain countries which are parties to the treaty has also specified that under certain
circumstances they would denounce it.
Countries like Libya and Iran have reserved their right to withdraw under certain conditions
classified as extra-ordinary events.
7) The treaty also failed to prevent the extension of nuclear club. France and China signed the
NPT only after becoming sizeable nuclear weapon states.
8) In January 2003, North Korea withdrew from the treaty and started its own nuclear
programme. This shows the lack of commitment of the NPT to impose sanctions on breakers
of the treaty.
9) By 2003-04, 40 countries possess the industrial and scientific infrastructure to build nuclear
weapons in short notice if they choose. Such a concern in international politics also adds to
the failure of NPT discussion.
10) Even after 50 years after the signing of the treaty, the nuke club has not yet evolved a fixed
time frame for eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
11) According to Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman, the “NPT has one giant loophole”: Article IV
gives each non-nuclear weapon state the ‘inalienable right’ to pursue nuclear energyfor the
generation of power. A number of high ranking officials, even within the United Nations,
have argued that they can do little to stop states using nuclear reactors to produce nuclear
weapons. A 2009 UN report said that:
“The revival of interest in nuclear power could result in the worldwide dissemination of
uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies, which present obvious risks of
proliferation as these technologies can produce fissile materials that are directly usable in
nuclear weapons.”
12) According to critics, those states which possess nuclear weapons, but are not authorized to
do so under the NPT, have not paid a significant price for their pursuit of weapons
capabilities.
13) The NPT has also been explicitly weakened by a number of bilateral deals made by NPT
signatories, notably the United States.

The monopoly of n-weapons by some states led to the emergence of nuclear hegemony and the
threat of nuclear blackmail in international relations. The nuclear powers gained the ability to
use ‘threat of nuclear weapons’ for securing their national interests in international relations.
 They kept on expanding and developing their nuclear power and at the same time they would
always try to prevent non-nuclear states from securing such weapons and devices in the name
of ‘world peace’.

With these weaknesses and failures, the NPT remained only a limited nuclear control and
disarmament measure. No doubt, this treaty is baised in favour of nuclear powers and is
therefore unequal and patently discriminatory, yet it is an important landmark on the long road
towards disarmament.

EVENTS

 In May 1995, during the 5th Review Conference held in New York, states-parties agree to the
indefinite extension of NPT.
In other words, the extension of the NPT was virtually a declaration by the Nuclear Weapon
states that they have the exclusive right to hold nuclear weapons in perpetuity.
 In July 14, 2015, Iran and the P5+Germany conclude the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action(JCPOA) to curtain Iran’s sensitive nuclear fuel cycle activities under strengthened
safeguards.
 During the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear
weapons(TPNW) was discussed which pointed out the deep concern by all states regarding
the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. It calls for a
legally binding international treaty for the prohibition of these weapons. However the five
nuclear weapon states opposed the call for negotiations on the grounds that, in their view, it
was premature and inappropriate given the current conditions of the international system,
and that widespread nuclear disarmament requires a more gradual approach. This
divergence of approach characterized the failed 2015 NPT Review Conference.
Finally, in December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to "advance
multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament". The resolution mandated the convening
of a United Nations Conference in 2017 to negotiate a legally binding instrument prohibiting
nuclear weapons, with a view to their total elimination. This conference did not succeed
since no nuclear power or any of its allies participated in the treaty negotiation process.
However, despite these absences, the NPT was approved and opened for signature on 20th
September 2017.

CONCLUSION

5th March, 2020 marks the 50th Anniversary of entry into force of the Nuclear Non-
proliferation Treaty. This is a great milestone in remembering all the good that the NPT has
done in making the world a safer place; and making the world a more prosperous place, an
opportunity to recommit to the treaty and to ensure that it continues to be true over time,
and to rededicate ourselves to trying to not just preserve, but to strengthen the non-
proliferation regime that was built up around the NPT at a time when it continues to face
significant challenges, so that it continues to have another good half century.