In News:

• Russia blocked agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the U.N. treaty - Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
• NPT, considered as the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, is reviewed by 191 signatories in every five years.

What’s in today’s article:       

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
• News Summary

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

• The NPT is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to foster the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of disarmament.
• The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.
• Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970.
• A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States.
  • South Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Israel have never joined the NPT.
  • North Korea joined the NPT in 1985, but withdrew in 2003.

Key features

• The Treaty is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and an essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.
• the Treaty establishes a safeguards system under the responsibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Safeguards are used to verify compliance with the Treaty through inspections conducted by the IAEA.
• The provisions of the Treaty envisage a review of the operation of the Treaty every five years.
• The treaty's term was originally 25 years, but it was extended indefinitely at a review conference in 1995.

NPT: A Success

• With the adherence of 191 countries, the NPT is close to universal world participation.
• It remains unique as there is no other international agreement based on a bargain between nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapon states.
• The Treaty facilitates cooperation on peaceful applications of nuclear technology under the watch of the IAEA.
• It can be credited with embedding the non-proliferation norm that is responsible for keeping the number of countries armed with nuclear weapons lower than ten.

NPT: Failed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons

• NPT in its present form tries to prevent horizontal proliferation but cannot prevent vertical proliferation.
  • Failure to prevent horizontal spreading can be seen in the case of Iran, Libya and North Korea.
• There are still almost 16,000 nuclear weapons in existence, many of them on hair-trigger alert and far more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
• There is no truthful adherence to the treaty. Many countries even after joining NPT continued clandestine (secret) nuclear programmes including Brazil, South Africa, Iran and Iraq.
• Today NPT has been reduced to a treaty which protects the rights of five nuclear weapon state. These states are contributing to the vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons.

News Summary

• Russia prevented the adoption of a joint declaration following a four-week UN conference on a nuclear disarmament treaty known as NPT.
• Russia had one key objection on some paragraphs which, according to the Russian officials, were blatantly political in nature.
  • The latest draft text had expressed grave concern over military activities around Ukrainian power plants, including Zaporizhzhia.
    • The shelling around these plants have raised the fears of nuclear radiation due to the possibility of damages to the reactors.
  • Russia was opposed to this paragraph concerning the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, which is occupied by the Russian military.