The TPNW allows for the denuclearisation of the International Gulf of Trieste in the Euro Mediterranean region of Alpe Adria, thanks to the Paris Peace Treaty that states its Disarmament and Neutrality

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, 5 May 2025

Working paper submitted by Mundo Sin Guerras y Sin Violencia

Statued by the Security Council and included in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, the Disarmament and Neutrality of the Free Territory of Trieste contributes to the pacification of ongoing wars through the possible creation of a Nuclear Free Zone in the International Gulf of Trieste and Koper, under the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as the first nucleus of a European and Mediterranean Nuclear Free Zone.

1.   On November 14, 2023, ICAN’s partner association Mundo Sin Guerras y Sin Violencia presentedon behalf of WILPF Italy to the Second Review Conference of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons the working paper TPNW/MSP/2023/NGO/16, entitled “Denuclearisation of the International Gulf of Trieste on the Basis of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty” which advanced the following contents. Introduction:
2.    On June 20, 2017, in New York, the NGOs WILPF Italy and Disarmisti Esigenti deposited at the Founding Conference for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons the Working Paper A/CONF.229/2017/NGO/WP.44 entitled FROM TRIESTE (ITALY), THE PROPOSAL OF CASE STUDY ON PORTS TO BE DENUCLEARISED, proposed by Italian pacifist Alessandro Capuzzo and former mayor of Koper-Capodistria Aurelio Juri.Relationship between the two treaties:
3.    The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which most UN member states have endorsed thanks to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to which we are a party, can change the balance of power between nuclear and non-nuclear states through the introduction of substantive transparency, to the benefit of civil society and humanity. As citizens of the Territory that the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty with Italy defined as demilitarised and neutral we are particularly concerned. This Territory faces the Adriatic Sea and is administered now by Italy Slovenia and Croatia, which share the International Gulf of Trieste, are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and have spoken out against TPNWbecause they are involved in NATO nuclear programs.
4.     The Gulf of Trieste hosts two military nuclear transit ports – Trieste (Italy) and Koper (Slovenia) – contrary to the Peace Treaty assumption on disarmament and neutrality. Even though Civil Protection Plans in accordance with European Directives exist, the presence of the urban sites makes it impossible to prevent incidents concerning the nuclear propulsion of ships, the presence of weapons of mass destruction on board, and the possibility of becoming the target of a war, or a terrorist attack.In addition, the secrecy imposed “for security reasons” on news necessary for timely information, prevents proper risk assessment related to the mentioned dangers, forces institutions to omit important parts of communication, and consequently conceals dangerous situations from the population. Scope of application:
5.    Six years after its approval, the Treaty is in force, and we meet in 2023 in New York to examine its contents and implementation. We invite you to consider the feasibility of our proposal made possible by the Treaties mentioned, TPNW and Paris Peace Treaty;while the implications of the TPNW are well known, few are aware of the provisions of the 1947 Peace Treaty – legitimised by Security Council Resolution S/RES/16 – that established UN jurisdiction over the Free Territory of Trieste, which existed from 1947 to 1954 as an independent state on the European “Iron Curtain.” Jurisdiction maintained even after 1954, as confirmed in 2015 by former Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, in his letter to Palestinian President Abbas listing the Territories under direct UN jurisdiction. The 1954 London Memorandum between the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia and Italy defined the division of the Free Territory of Trieste into Zones A and B, assigning A Zone to the civilian administration of the Italian government, and BZone to the civilian administration of the Yugoslav government. Not to mention disarmament and neutrality, which are the responsibility of the United Nations and are essential for an International Free Port like Trieste.
6.   The Statute of the Free Territory of Trieste inscribed in the Peace Treaty is a legal unicum, comparable to the constitutional choice to abolish Costa Rica’s army, and involves the Gulf Coast strip on the Adriatic Sea,where Italy Slovenia and Croatia now meet: Disarmament and Neutrality are enshrined in Article 3 of that Statute.These norms of International Law have been “forgotten” due to political exigencies by the states involved, but when combined with the TPNW they allow the International Gulf of Trieste to be declared denuclearised; we urge NGOs, starting with ICAN, and the States parties to the TPNW to consider the proposal, which traces the Action Plan for the Universalisation of the TPNW expressed by the first Review Conference in Vienna.
7.    We call on the United Nations, the Secretary-General, the UN Regional Peace and Disarmament Centers, the International Committee of the Red Cross, parliamentarians and citizens sensitive to nuclear disarmament, to support the proposal to denuclearise the International Gulf of Trieste, as the first physical body of a Euro-Mediterranean Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. A special invitation is extended to the signatory states of the Peace Treaty with Italy, because of the right they hold to the use of the International Free Port of Trieste: Austria, Czechia, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, the United States, Switzerland, Hungary, as well as all successor states of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Australia, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Greece, India, New Zealand, the Netherlands, South Africa and Ukraine are as of right involved in the Peace Treaty.
8.    These are the contents of the working paper presented in December 2023, the assumptions of which are confirmed here on. Since then, new events have happened that contribute to a necessary evolution and update of the original denuclearisation proposal.
9.    The Disarmament and Neutrality of the Free Territory of Trieste decreed by the Security Council and included in the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947, can help de-escalate the ongoing wars, with the creation under the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons of a Nuclear Free Zone in the International Gulf of Trieste and Koper. U.N. Security Council Resolution 16 of 1947 (1) and the Peace Treaty with Italy (2) established as an Unarmed and Neutral State the Free Territory of Trieste (FTT), which in 1954 the United States and United Kingdom divided with the London Memorandum, entrusting the Civil Administration of A Zone (with Trieste) to the Italian Government and B Zone (with Koper) to the Yugoslav Government. But Trieste and Koper – hitherto “transit” NATO nuclear naval bases – are about to become stable bases along with Rijeka in Croatia. The 2015 letter from Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to Palestinian President Abbas (3) confirmed direct U.N. jurisdiction over the Unarmed and Neutral Territory in question, while the U.S. and U.K. maintained a de facto protectorate there, augmented by Slovenia and Croatia’s entry into NATO, in contradiction to the Neutrality of the Free Territory and its Gulf on the Adriatic Sea.
10.     At the Opening Conference of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence for the Alpe Adria supranational Region, on September 30, 2024 in Koper, the 3 Seas or “Trimarium” initiative promoted by the Atlantic Council (4) was introduced, complementary to the Israel-centered “Cotton Road” discussed below, and functional to the military containment of Russia on the Poland-Belarus-Ukraine-Moldavia-Romania line, from Gdansk on the Baltic to Constanța on the Black Sea. The so-called “Trimarium” is achieved by aggregating to that line the ports of Trieste Koper and Rijeka, called upon to provide logistics to the military front from the Adriatic Sea. On the axis between Trieste and Constanța, the “Trimarium” encounters resistance from Slovakia, Hungary, the Bosnian Serb Republic, and Serbia, to NATO’s push toward war confrontation with Russia. A conflict that may reignite the Balkans is foreseeable, due to tensions between the Croat-Muslim Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, between Serbia and Kosovo, and between Moldova and Transnistria. Conflict whose first victims would be the many Refugees, who left war-torn Middle Eastern countries risking their lives in the Balkans, to reach Western Europe.
11.     Given the described Balkan tensions, the carnage of the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence has advanced an Appeal for Neutrality of the supranational Region of Alpe Adria, and announced this project in the Army-free country of Costa Rica. Appeal that starts from the Neutral city of Trieste, with its Adriatic Gulf and the International Free Port, destined to become besides the “Trimarium” initiative, the military terminal of the “Cotton Road” from India to Europe (5) – an alternative to the Chinese “Silk Road” – hinged on the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordania and Israel, to achieve which Israel is at war against Palestine Lebanon Syria lraq Iran and Yemen, as known, with Western support.
12.    Candidate a Neutral Territory to change its nature, to become an important and stable military nuclear base, creates an irremediable contradiction. The United Nations, as responsible for the independence and integrity of the Free Territory of Trieste, and its Unarmed and Neutral status (3), has the ability and responsibility to prevent the perverse operation that is taking shape, within a Territory and Gulf that fall under their exclusive jurisdiction. Based on Security Council Resolution 16, the Peace Treaty with Italy as well as the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty (6), they can denuclearise the International Gulf of Trieste and initiate a path, toward European and Mediterranean denuclearisation; fostering the necessary return to a policy of Neutrality, as essential factor for the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the de-escalation of the Middle East conflict.

 (1) https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/111973?ln=en (2) https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume 49/v49.pdf(3) https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/{65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9}/s_2015_809.pdf (4)https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/bridging-the-baltic-black-and-adriatic-seas-europe-nato/ (5)https://formiche.net/2023/09/via-del-cotone-trieste-piano-mare/#content (6) https://d

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 5 May 2025.

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