NPT : Major powers hardly care !

It is hardly surprising that the tenth nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference has turned out to be a total flop .

Observers say that the conference ended in New York last week , after four weeks of work. It did not reach any substantive conclusions and recommendations. No major world power has ever been serious about the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Entered into force in 1970, the treaty is supposed to (a)prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology( beyond the United States, Russia/ the successor of the former U.S.S.R, the United Kingdom , France and China), (b) promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and (c) further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

Powerful nuclear states have hardly cared for these goals of the NPT. The United States is still the greatest nuclear power in the world . The US Defense Department's 2022 Nuclear Posture Review reaffirms the U.S. adherence to its nuclear deterrence strategy. Accordingly, the fundamental role of U.S. nuclear weapons is to deter attack on the United States and its allies.

Currently , the United States is said to have a 30-year nuclear modernisation programme intended to provide 'credible deterrence against regional aggression.' This is being used to develop more usable low-yield nuclear weapons.

Russia today threatens to use nuclear arms in its present tension with Ukraine. China has been expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal. The major powers have proceeded with their programmes of refining their nuclear weapons. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was concluded in 1996. The U.S. and China are yet to ratify it.

Under the arms control talks between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R./Russia, Washington and Moscow did bring down their collective arsenals from a high of nearly 65,000 in the early 1980s to less than 12,000 warheads. But this process has not moved forward . In 2002, the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. In 2019, the U.S. notified Russia of its decision to quit the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty .

The observers say the major powers may turn to India to accomplish the key goals of the NPT. New Delhi has long been for a no first use of nuclear weapons , comprehensive test ban ( moratorium on all nuclear tests, including computer simulation and sub-critical ones) . It is for a ban on the production of all weapon- grade fissile materials, including not only highly enriched uranium and plutonium but also tritium .

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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