But 25 years after it was first signed

Nic Maclellan

 

In a major policy change, the US government has announced it will move to support the Rarotonga Treaty for a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ)—25 years after the treaty was first signed by Pacific nations.
The change in policy was announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the May 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Clinton stated the Obama administration “will seek US Senate advice and consent to ratification of several Protocols to the Africa Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) and the South Pacific Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Rarotonga).”
She noted: “Following a review of US policy towards nuclear weapon free zones currently in force, the Administration is satisfied that the African and South Pacific treaties are consistent with US and international criteria for such zones.”
“Upon ratification, parties to those agreements will have a legally binding assurance that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against them and will fully respect the nuclear weapons free status of the zones,” Clinton said
After a decade of campaigning by Pacific churches and the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, Pacific governments moved to create a nuclear free zone in the mid-1980s.
At the height of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the SPNFZ Treaty was opened for signature on Hiroshima Day, 6 August 1985, at the Forum meeting in Rarotonga.
Under this Rarotonga Treaty, countries in the zone commit never to develop nuclear weapons (although only Australia has ever begun preparations to build a nuclear bomb, in the early 1960s).
The treaty also has three protocols, where nuclear states with territories in the zone (France, United Kingdom and United States) agree to apply the treaty to their territories. By accepting the protocols, the nuclear powers also undertake not to use or threaten to use any nuclear device against countries in the zone and undertake not to test nuclear devices in the zone.

Signing the
protocols
Russia and China were first to sign these protocols in 1986 and 1987, pledging not to store or test nuclear weapons in the region or use them against Australia, New Zealand or island nations.
In contrast, France, Britain and the United States refused to sign for a decade. The three Western powers only signed the treaty protocols on 25 March 1996, after the end of French nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls. Until now, however, the US government has refused to ratify its signature by passing legislation through the US Senate.
The new policy from the Obama administration opens the way to review and extend the treaty north of the Equator, to include the US Compact states. At the time the treaty was negotiated in the mid-1980s, these territories were still part of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and were not included in the zone. Since that time however, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Republic of Palau have all joined the Pacific Islands Forum and the United Nations and the Rarotonga Treaty could be amended to include them in its boundaries.
In a positive step, the RMI Ambassador to the United Nations Phillip Muller told the NPT Review Conference last month that RMI is now examining the treaty and has “eventual aspirations to join with our Pacific neighbours in supporting a Pacific free of nuclear weapons in a manner consistent with international security.”

Nuclear-free
Southern Hemisphere
The Rarotonga Treaty was a bold initiative at the time it was negotiated—an era of US-Soviet superpower confrontation, French nuclear testing and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French agents.
SPNFZ provided a stimulus to the negotiation of similar zones in neighbouring regions.
Today NWFZ occupy almost all the southern hemisphere and are moving steadily towards the northern hemisphere: Antarctica (1959); Latin America (Tlatelolco, 1967); Oceania (Rarotonga, 1985); Southeast Asia (Bangkok, 1995), and Africa (Pelindaba, 1996).
Within existing NWFZ, Vanuatu, New Zealand and the Philippines have added national legislation to ban nuclear activities in their territory. In addition, Austria (1999) and Mongolia (2000) are each single-state zones.
For the United Nations, NWFZ are building blocks towards larger and more comprehensive disarmament initiatives, such as the proposed negotiation of a Nuclear Weapons Convention. They allow action by mid-level powers and countries without nuclear weapons, contributing to the abolition of nuclear arsenals.
Addressing a conference on 30 April of the 116 states that are currently members of NWFZ, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated: “We are working patiently to lay the foundations for the abolition of these horrific weapons, and to prevent their spread.
“Nuclear weapon free zones are key to this strategy. In the past year, treaties establishing two new zones—in Central Asia and Africa—have come into force.”
The entry into force of the Central Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (CANWFZ) on 21 March 2009 was significant, because it is the first such zone in the northern hemisphere, in a region where nuclear weapons had previously been tested and deployed.
The Pelindaba Treaty for an African NWFZ entered into force on 15 July 2009, and will influence current debates over a zone for the Middle East, where Israel has over 200 weapons and Iran is developing nuclear capacity.
There are a range of proposals for other zones in areas where nuclear weapons are deployed, in North East Asia, Central Europe and the Arctic Circle.

Updating
Rarotonga
The positive contribution of Rarotonga as a precedent for other regions is offset by its limitations. While critical of French nuclear testing, Australia worked with its ANZUS ally in Washington to ensure SPNFZ did not threaten US strategic deployments in the region.
The Pacific treaty does not prevent port visits by nuclear warships, the transit of strategic nuclear weapons, or the launch of such weapons by US nuclear submarines in the zone against targets beyond the region.
At present there are no legally binding agreements that would prevent the United States, Russia or China from redeploying nuclear weapons on submarines or planes in the South Pacific (In contrast, the Bangkok Treaty seeks to prevent the use of nuclear weapons from anywhere in the Asian zone, including the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zones).
While making strong public statements of support for nuclear free zones, Canberra has recently taken an ambivalent position, abstaining on UN General Assembly resolutions of support for the Central Asian Zone and making no mention of NWFZ in its official Australia-Japan statement to the 2010 NPT Review Conference.
This comes at a time when countries in other regions are seeking to create a southern hemisphere NWFZ, promoting formal linkages between established zones through cooperative action, exchanging information and data relevant to treaty verification, and moving to establish an international NWFZ secretariat.
Since SPNFZ entered into force in 1986, there has not been a formal review of the Rarotonga Treaty by Forum member countries, even though it includes provisions for a Consultative Committee for “consultation and co-operation on any matter arising in relation to this Treaty or for reviewing its operation.”
This committee must convene “at the request of any Party”, so any Forum member country could call for a SPNFZ review conference.
This August, Forum leaders will be meeting in nuclear-free Vanuatu, 25 years after the creation of SPNFZ and on the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
With the US moving to ratify the SPNFZ Treaty, the Forum could move to extend the treaty to the northern Pacific and assess progress in the treaty’s implementation, in the light on disarmament initiatives in the 21st century.
With the spread of nuclear weapons to India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, the nuclear threat is still with us.