This Week In History

CWA # 1372
This Week In History
01 July 1968: US, Soviet Union, UK and 40 countries sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty

Prajwal TV
1 July 2024

Photo Source: The National Security Archive/ Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library

The Road to NPT
On 08 December 1953, U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his acclaimed speech titled “Atoms for Peace” to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in the initial years of the Cold-War between the United States and the Soviet Union and fears surrounding a possible use of atoms for war. His speech became the inspiration for the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957, to promote peaceful nuclear technology.

In November 1959, Frank Aiken, Irish Minister for External Affairs initiated the Non-Prolifiration Treaty discussions. NATO members saw Aiken’s proposal as undermining the NATO’s Multilateral Force concept of nuclear-sharing. It took four years for a universal consensus between nuclear and non-nuclear states which led to the Irish Resolution of 1961, the most ambitious of the three resolutions (1959, 1960 and 1961) that removed the use of terms such as “voluntary” and “temporary” requesting an international scrutiny into matters of nuclear threats and a pact between nuclear and non-nuclear states to avoid nuclear threats and escalation.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy became the US President, giving rise to the much needed political will for negotiations on concrete steps to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. The UN General Assembly unanimously approved Resolution 1665 (1961), calling for negotiations to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the then existing nuclear states agreed not to transfer technology while the non-nuclear countries agreed to not acquire nuclear weapons. However, the disarmament question remained. For the nuclear weapon states, more countries with nuclear weapons outside the recognised powers meant a more unstable and insecure world order, but opposition remained to disarm existing nuclear weapons. Therefore, the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee convened in 1962, co-chaired by the USA and the Soviet Union. After nine long years of deliberations and negotiations, the disarmament clause was accepted however, the time frame within which countries had to disarm themselves was left unspecified.

On 01 July 1968, the Non-Proliferation Treaty was first opened for signature with Frank Aiken on behalf of the Republic of Ireland, the critical figure who led the initiative became its first signatory alongside the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States alongside 40 states over the course of the next two years across London, Moscow and Washington. 

The focus of the NPT
The NPT consists of a preamble and eleven articles, often interpreted as comprising three fundamental principles for all countries:
Non-Proliferation under Articles I and II, nuclear-weapon states pledge not to transfer nuclear weapons or assist non-nuclear-weapon states in acquiring them. The non-nuclear states agree to not pursue or develop nuclear weapons and to accept safeguards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify their compliance.
Disarmament under Article VI requires all countries to commit to pursuing negotiations in good faith towards nuclear disarmament and the cessation of the nuclear arms race which were carried out throughout the Cold-War between 1945-1991. 
Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy under Article IV acknowledges the right of all parties to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and encourages international cooperation in this field, provided they comply with non-proliferation obligations.

From 1968 to 2024
On 05 March 1970, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into effect, with over 40 countries ratifying the treaty along with the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. It laid down the basic fundamental regulations governing non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy. The NPT was drafted at a time when the world faced a binary threat of destruction, fueled by the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. During that time, the superpowers struggled politically and intellectually, splitting the world into East and West, democracy and communism.

The NPT had been reviewed every five years in Review Conferences however, in 1995, the treaty was extended indefinitely by consensus during a Review Conference in New York City strengthening the commitment of the global community to the needs of the treaty’s objectives.

On 18 May 1974 India conducted  “peaceful nuclear explosion.”The international community reacted strongly since India was not a signatory to the Treaty. India’s test prompted stricter safeguards and procedures globally which led to the formation of the London Club establishing guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.

In response to the test conducted by India, the US introduced the  Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act (1978) furthering and strengthening the NPT. 

As of 2024, a total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States. On the other hand, India, Israel, and Pakistan, all of whom are believed to have nuclear weapons, did not become signatories of the NPT. North Korea signed the NPT in 1985 but announced its departure in 2003 after breaking its basic agreements and conducting nuclear tests. 

The five major nuclear-weapon states still possess thousands of warheads collectively. Over half a century later, the NPT continues to remain in force, although, the East-West divide has changed into a multipolar world order in which non state actors pose a new security danger besides nuclear threats exacerbated by multiple conflicts around the world intertwined with the power struggle involving major powers for example Russia and Ukraine.

In the series:
05 July 1996: Dolly becomes the first mammal to be cloned
01 July 2002: The Rome Statute establishes the International Criminal Court
05 July 1962: Algeria declares its independence, ending 132 years of French occupation
06 June 1944: Allied forces land in Normandy, turning the tide in World War-II
21 May 1991: LTTE human bomb assassinates Rajiv Gandhi
20 May 1948: Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer lands in Calicut in India’s west coast
20 May 2002: East Timor becomes an independent country
30 April 1975: Saigon falls to North Vietnam troops, leading to the reunification of Vietnam
21 April 1526: The First Battle of Panipat leads to the emergence of the Mughal Empire in India
17 April 1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki ends the first Sino-Japan War (1894-95)
17 April 1975: Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh in Cambodia, establishing the Pol Pot regime
16 April 1917: Lenin issues “April Theses”
04 April 1968: Martin Luther King Jr assassinated
18 March 2014: Russia annexes Crimea
14 March 1879: Albert Einstein born in Germany
14 March 1849: The Sikh Army surrenders to the British
12 March 1918: Lenin shifts the capital to Moscow
11 March 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

About the author
Prajwal TV is an undergraduate student from St Joseph's University, Bengaluru.

 

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