{"id":239474,"date":"2023-07-17T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=239474"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T19:54:52","slug":"nato-fails-to-reduce-nuclear-risks-at-vilnius-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/nato-fails-to-reduce-nuclear-risks-at-vilnius-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO Fails to Reduce Nuclear Risks at Vilnius Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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12 Jul 2023 – The leaders of NATO countries, meeting in Vilnius at a time of unprecedented nuclear risk, took no action to reduce nuclear dangers and, on the contrary, issued a communique<\/a> continuing to support the use of nuclear weapons. The alliance pointed to the risks posed by Russia\u2019s nuclear weapons while hailing its own nuclear deterrent and nuclear sharing arrangements. It also criticised the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the only area of progress on nuclear disarmament in decades, demonstrating its concern about the Treaty\u2019s power to stigmatise and eliminate nuclear weapons.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo: NATO Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

The communique<\/a>, released at the end of the first day of the Summit, condemned Russian deployment of weapons in Belarus and Russia\u2019s \u201cirresponsible nuclear rhetoric and coercive nuclear signalling,\u201d while reiterating the alliance\u2019s willingness to use nuclear weapons itself, and it\u2019s \u201cresolve to impose costs on an adversary that would be unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

On nuclear sharing<\/h2>\n

NATO presented its justification for\u00a0 the U.S. deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe, despite democratic and legal challenges to the practice. It also criticised Russia for the same concept- to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. The communique is more explicit on nuclear sharing than previous statements,\u00a0 stating\u00a0 that\u201cNATO\u2019s nuclear deterrence posture also relies on the United States\u2019 nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Europe.\u201d\u00a0 But it ignores concerns raised by parliamentarians and citizens in NATO countries. The communique repeated NATO\u2019s position that \u201cNATO’s nuclear burden-sharing arrangements have always been fully consistent with the NPT,\u201ddespite the repeated challenges<\/a> by other NPT members to this assertion.<\/p>\n

Nuclear sharing, or stationing nuclear weapons in another country, is explicitly prohibited under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which all countries should join as a matter of urgency to prevent further deployment of nuclear weapons in additional countries.<\/p>\n

On the TPNW<\/h2>\n

The communique dedicated several sentences to rebuking the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the only treaty to adopt an action plan on disarmament in over a decade. NATO\u2019s attention to this\u00a0 treaty demonstrates the alliance’s fear about its ability to undermine the possession, threat of use and stationing of nuclear weapons and challenge the practice of nuclear deterrence that all members currently engage in. The reality is that there is no inconsistency between the two treaties (NATO and the TPNW) – only between the practice of nuclear deterrence and joining the TPNW.<\/p>\n

The communique claimed that the treaty is \u201cin opposition to and is inconsistent and incompatible with the Alliance\u2019s nuclear deterrence policy.\u201d Yet throughout the history of NATO, members of the alliance have taken different approaches to weapons and strategy issues, and- as the communique itself outlines: Every nation has the right to choose its own security arrangements.\u00a0 There is no legal impediment<\/a> to NATO members joining the TPNW. In fact several NATO countries are engaging with the constructive work underway in the TPNW, including by observing the first Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW in 2022, including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.<\/p>\n

The NATO Summit in Vilnius could have been an opportunity for member states to demonstrate their commitment to bolstering peace and security by reducing the unacceptably high level of nuclear risk. As nuclear-armed states, states that host US nuclear weapons and states that accept the use of nuclear weapons on their behalf, they have the power to agree to end these dangerous practices. Instead, they chose to issue a communique with language on nuclear weapons that was hypocritical and empty. Fortunately, member states to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will meet<\/a> at the end of November to take real action to address nuclear dangers and advance towards disarmament.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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Further reading:<\/em><\/p>\n

Experts and governments meet to discuss the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

Namibia ratifies UN nuclear weapon ban treaty<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

Caribbean nations rally behind UN nuclear weapon ban treaty<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

Saint Kitts and Nevis ratifies UN nuclear weapon ban treaty on Nagasaki anniversary<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

Belgian Parliament to vote on ending nuclear weapons<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a> The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ican) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the <\/em>Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons<\/em><\/a>. This landmark global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017. Since our founding, we have worked to build a powerful global groundswell of public support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. By engaging a diverse range of groups and working alongside the Red Cross and like-minded governments, we have helped reshape the debate on nuclear weapons and generate momentum towards elimination. We were awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize<\/strong> for our \u201cwork to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons\u201d and our \u201cground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons\u201d. <\/em>More\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 icanw.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Jul 2023 – The leaders of NATO countries, meeting in Vilnius at a time of unprecedented nuclear risk, took no action to reduce nuclear dangers and, on the contrary, issued a communique continuing to support the use of nuclear weapons. The alliance pointed to the risks posed by Russia\u2019s nuclear weapons while hailing its own nuclear deterrent and nuclear sharing arrangements. It also criticised the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":132909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[853,2090,91,1074,1476,429,450,875],"class_list":["post-239474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nobel-laureates","tag-atomic-weapons","tag-ican-international-campaign-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons","tag-nato","tag-nobel-peace-prize","tag-nuclear-abolition","tag-nuclear-ban-treaty","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-wmd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239477,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239474\/revisions\/239477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}