With its near-universal membership, the NPT has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement, with only South Sudan, India, Israel, and Pakistan remaining outside the treaty. In order to accede to the treaty, these states must do so as NNWS, since the treaty restricts NWS status to nations that "manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January 1967." For India, Israel, and Pakistan, all known to possess or suspected of having nuclear weapons, joining the treaty as NNWS would require that they dismantle their nuclear weapons and place their nuclear materials under international safeguards. South Africa followed this path to accession in 1991.
Select Treaty Articles
Under Articles I and II of the treaty, the NWS agree not to help NNWS develop or acquire nuclear weapons, and the NNWS permanently forswear the pursuit of such weapons. To verify these commitments and ensure that nuclear materials are not being diverted for weapons purposes, Article III tasks the International Atomic Energy Agency with the inspection of the non-nuclear-weapon states' nuclear facilities. In addition, Article III establishes safeguards for the transfer of fissionable materials between NWS and NNWS.
Article IV acknowledges the "inalienable right" of NNWS to research, develop, and use nuclear energy for non-weapons purposes. It also supports the "fullest possible exchange" of such nuclear-related information and technology between NWS and NNWS. Article V, now effectively obsolete, permits NNWS access to NWS research and development on the benefits of nuclear explosions conducted for peaceful purposes. As the perceived utility of peaceful nuclear explosions has diminished over time, the relevance of this clause has lost much of its practical value. It is now moot due to the restriction on all nuclear explosions mandated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty—to which all five NWS are signatories.
Article VI commits the NWS to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." Acknowledging the necessity of intermediate steps in the process of nuclear disarmament, Article VII allows for the establishment of regional nuclear-weapon-free-zones.
Article VIII requires a complex and lengthy process to amend the treaty, effectively blocking any changes absent clear consensus. Article X establishes the terms by which a state may withdraw from the treaty, requiring three month's advance notice should "extraordinary events" jeopardize its supreme national interests.
The remainder of the treaty deals with its administration, providing for a review conference every five years and a decision after 25 years on whether the treaty should be extended. The 1995 review conference extended the treaty indefinitely and enhanced the review process by mandating that the five-year review conferences review past implementation and address ways to strengthen the treaty.
For more on the history of the NPT and its review conferences, see the Timeline of the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
*North Korea announced January 10, 2003 that it was withdrawing from the treaty, effective the next day. Although Article X of the NPT requires that a country give three months notice in advance of withdrawing, North Korea argued that it satisfied this requirement because it originally announced its decision to withdraw March 12, 1993, and suspended the decision one day before it was to become legally binding. There is not yet a definitive legal opinion as to whether North Korea is still a party to the NPT.
India
did not sign NPT because it is a flawed treaty with no basis of recognizing
states which should have the nuclear energy.
Non-Proliferation
Treaty or NPT as it most commonly known, is an international treaty whose
objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to
promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the
goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
The
treaty recognizes five states as nuclear-weapon
states:
the United
States,
Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China(also the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council).
This
effectively means that the only those 5 countries are allowed to have nuclear
weapons.
What
is even funnier and important to note that this treaty was formalized in 1968.
Any state which was reported to have done detonation before that were
recognized as nuclear-weapon state.
India,
did it’s first test in 1974 -Smiling Buddha. And thus the only way for
India to join this treaty would be if it promises to not be nuclear weapon
state.
This
is not acceptable to India because of two main reasons -
- India shares it borders with Pakistan and China. Both of them are nuclear states.
- Energy Independence - India is dependent on import of energy and is not self-reliant. Nuclear energy provides alternative for India to be self-reliant
There
was no way to determine if any nation indeed requires nuclear power or not in
the treaty. There was no framework in the treaty for the countries which truly
required nuclear energy. As Pranab Mukherjee said - NPT as a flawed treaty
and it did not recognize the need for universal, non-discriminatory
verification and treatment.
Keeping
restriction on any nations’s ability for peaceful uses is not justified. Every
nation has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful uses.
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