NPT-NON PROLIFERATION TREATY(NPT)

1.Context

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is headed to Hiroshima for the G7 leaders’ summit this Friday-the first visit to the Japanese city by an Indian Prime Minister since India conducted nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1974. The last Indian PM to visit Hiroshima, which suffered the atomic bomb attack in 1945, was Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957. Modi, who reaches Hiroshima on May 19, will attend the G7 summit on May 20-21

2.Objectives 

• Controlling the further spread of nuclear weapons beyond the P-5 countries (the U.S., the U.S.S.R, the U.K, France, and China ) that had already tested
• committing to negotiating reductions of nuclear arsenals leading to their elimination
• Sharing benefits of peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology

3. NPT Appraisal

3.1.Success

• Over the years, the non-proliferation objective has been achieved in large measure. There would be close to 25 nuclear power, in the last 50 years, only four more countries have gone on to test and develop nuclear arsenals –India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan (South Africa developed nuclear weapons but the apartheid regime destroyed them and joined NPT in 1991 before relinquishing power to majority rule.
• In 1991 , non-proliferation remained a shared priority for the major powers

4.Why NPT Failed  to Bore  Results

• ANTI–BALLISTIC MISSILE TREATY-The U.S withdrew from the 1972 Anti–Ballistic Missile( ABM )Treaty in 2002 because it unduly constrained its missile defense activities. It was a unipolar world with the U.S. the dominant power. Russia gradually responded by embarking on its nuclear modernization.
• INTERMEDIATE RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES (INF)-in 1987 U.S notified Russia of its decision to quit INF that had obliged both countries to get rid of all ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5500km. The S. blamed Russia for cheating on its obligation and pointed out that China's missile developments created new security threats that needed to be addressed.
• NEW START-the only surviving arms control treaty between Russia and the U.S.that imposes a ceiling on operational strategic nuclear weapons of 700 launchers and 1550warheads each. It expires in 2026 and there are no signs of any follow–on a discussion.
• COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY – was concluded in 1996 but has yet to formally enter into force because two major powers the U.S. and China have yet to ratify it.

5.Present Scenario

• Attempts by the Donald Trump administration to invite China to join in the arms control process were rejected.
• Given growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait, any prospects for such talks have only receded.
• All that the five nuclear weapon states party to the NPT could manage at the conference was a reiteration of the 1985 Reagan –Gorbachev declaration that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
• The statement sounded hollow in the face of growing strategic rivalry between China, Russia, and the U.S, rising nuclear rhetoric, and modernization plans for nuclear arsenal being pursued.

6.Russia and China

• They are developing hypersonic delivery systems that evade missile defences as well as larger missiles that do not need to travel over the Arctic.
• Nuclear Torpedoes and new cruise missiles are on cards. Last year, satellite imagery over China revealed that at least three new missile storage sites are being developed. Analyst suggests that China may be on track to expand its arsenal from current levels of approximately 350 warheads to over 1000 by 2030.
• Developments in space and cyber domains are blurring the line between conventional and nuclear weapons, leading to nuclear entanglement and rendering command and control systems vulnerable.
• At the conference, France, the U.K, and the U.S wanted to distinguish between "irresponsible "nuclear threats of an offensive nature and "responsible "nuclear threats for defensive purposes but Russia and China stymied western efforts .when the nuclear have nots suggested a universal condemnation of all threats of a nuclear use, all five nuclear –haves joined together to resist such moves.

7. Treaty On The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

• The nuclear have not negotiated a treaty TPNW in 2017 that entered into force in January 2021.
• All 86 signatories are nuclear have not’s and parties to the NPT.
• The TPNW creates a new legal instrument and at their meeting in June in Vienna, the TPNW states committed to pushing for” stigmatizing and de-legitimizing “nuclear weapons, condemning all nuclear threats and “building a robust global peremptory norm against them.

Source:The Hindu