Australia and regional denuclearization treaties

• Main Author: Michael Hamel-Green
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability 2009
• Subjects: Treaties; Nuclear energy; Rural conditions; Arctic
• Online Access: http://apo.org.au/node/8223

Michael Hamel-Green of Victoria University in Melbourne writes that while Australia has generally been a strong supporter of nuclear weapons-free zones (NWFZs) "there are a number of "initiatives that Australia might take both within its own region and more broadly to strengthen regional denuclearisation initiatives. These include strengthening and extending the 1985 Raratonga Treaty; providing opportunities for the 100-plus member countries of NWFZ zones "to coordinate their approaches on arrange of nuclear proliferation and disarmament issues"; supporting the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone both diplomatically and with technical assistance; and supporting proposals for a Fourth UN Special Session on Disarmament to consider the establishment of new NWFZs, including in the Middle East, South Asia, Northeast Asia, the Arctic, and Outer Space. Hamel-Green concludes by stressing the need for work towards a Nuclear Weapons Convention framework as "a way of addressing the threat of a nuclear holocaust through an agreed reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons while maintaining mutual security for all states and peoples at each stage of the process."