Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
3/6/2015
Days before the 45th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused NATO, the U.S. and other European countries of violating the NPT by conducting joint nuclear exercises. Russia in the early 1990s reduced its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons by one-third and centralized its intercontinental ballistic missiles at interior Russian bases, despite ongoing U.S. nuclear modernization and European deployment of U.S.-produced nuclear weapons that can reach Russian territory, Lavrov asserted in prepared remarks March 2 at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
The NPT’s anniversary was March 5. “I’d like to recall that Russia, by implementing the 1991-1992 presidential initiatives, reduced by three-quarters its arsenal of [non-strategic nuclear] weapons, transferred them to the non-deployed category and concentrated them at its central bases on its national territory,” Lavrov stated. “It took this unprecedented measure despite the fact that Europe still has operationally deployed U.S. nuclear weapons that can reach Russian territory. Moreover, these American weapons are being upgraded, and some European non-nuclear NATO countries take an active part in so-called ‘joint nuclear missions.’ This training in using nuclear weapons with the participation of non-nuclear NATO countries, which was reaffirmed at last year’s NATO summit in Wales, is being conducted in violation of the first two fundamental articles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
State Dept. Responds
A State Department official wrote this week in an email to NS&D Monitor that the NPT does not prohibit deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons on NATO territory, which has been in place since before NPT’s 1970 entry into force. “These weapons remain under U.S. control at all times and are never transferred,” the official wrote. “This issue was fully addressed when the treaty was negotiated. The arrangements were made clear to delegations and were made public. They were not challenged.” NPT Article I prohibits states from transferring nuclear weapons and from encouraging any non-nuclear-weapon state from acquiring a nuclear attack capability. Article II prohibits non-nuclear-weapon treaty parties from receiving, manufacturing, or seeking to make nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices.
In response to Lavrov’s assertion that the U.S. was upgrading nuclear weapons deployed by NATO, the State Department official wrote that B61 warhead consolidation will enhance the safety and security of nuclear weapons and allow the U.S. to retire the B83 megaton class of nuclear weapons, reducing the overall U.S. stockpile. “The B61 supports the U.S. national commitment to maintain the capability to deploy nonstrategic nuclear weapons with NATO’s dual capable aircraft,” the official wrote. The U.S. is consolidating B61’s four variants into one common variant, the B61-12.
President Obama Speaks to NPT
In a March 5 White House statement on the anniversary of the NPT, President Barack Obama said the U.S. is meeting its NPT obligations and “is committed to further strengthening the nonproliferation regime.” He highlighted his previously declared disarmament priorities. “As I stated in Prague in 2009, reinforced in Berlin in 2013, and again reaffirmed last month in my National Security Strategy, the United States seeks the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. We encourage all states to strengthen the NPT as a basis for international cooperation to achieve that shared goal. The NPT remains essential today, and our efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament cannot succeed unless we stand together to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and work for full compliance with the NPT,” Obama said. “The United States is meeting its NPT obligations and is committed to further strengthening the nonproliferation regime. During my Administration, the United States has reduced the role nuclear weapons play in our security and reduced the size of our arsenal.”
Kerry Calls NPT ‘Bedrock’ of Nonproliferation
In a separate statement, Secretary of State John Kerry called the NPT the “bedrock” of nonproliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Kerry emphasized the U.S. has been “working diligently” to implement the NPT Action Plan to prepare for the 2015 NPT Review Conference in New York on April 27, and highlighted U.S. efforts to bring about North Korea’s “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.”
Overall, Kerry said, NPT implementation remains strong. “The international consensus against the spread of nuclear weapons, embodied in the spirit and text of the Treaty, is strong and continues to be upheld,” Kerry said. “Overwhelming numbers of states have refrained from pursuing nuclear weapons and accept International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards as the standard for verification and peaceful nuclear trade. Several states that abandoned nuclear weapons efforts might have come to a different conclusion in the absence of a robust and widely supported NPT.”
