Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Mr. President,
In 2023, the world faces greater danger of an unbridled nuclear arms race and use of nuclear weapons than at any time since the Cold War.
We only have to recall the destruction and trauma inflicted on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see that the human cost of nuclear weapons use in today’s world would be catastrophic. The detonation of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed at least 355,000 people – the majority of them civilians – and burdened those communities with incalculable long-term harm.
The scars of decades of nuclear testing are still visible in our own Pacific region. These nuclear detonations dislocated communities and forced people from their lands, fisheries and traditional ways, causing immense and long-term harm to human health and the environment.
Our region united behind the creation of a nuclear-free zone, and Aotearoa New Zealand has advocated strongly for a world free of nuclear weapons ever since.
And yet, despite all the progress achieved to reduce nuclear weapons’ numbers and salience in recent decades, the tide now appears to be turning.
Today, the world as a whole is moving further away from the elimination of these pernicious weapons. The modernisation of nuclear arsenals, the development of new types of nuclear warheads and delivery systems, and a renewed arms race are a far cry from nuclear weapons elimination. At the same time, dangerous atomic rhetoric, stationing of nuclear weapons in more countries, and exercises threatening their use are all on the rise.
In the face of this, New Zealand is deeply concerned about the health of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the grand bargain it entails. Two successive NPT Review Conferences – in 2015 and 2022 – failed to adopt agreed outcomes, the last due to Russia blocking consensus at the last moment. Subsequently, the current NPT review cycle’s commencement at the first PrepCom meeting in Vienna last month was anything but auspicious.
Greater cooperation on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation is sorely needed. Progress on disarmament cannot be deferred any longer, whatever other challenges we are facing .
There are concrete actions the world can take, even in today’s tense international environment.
We call on those states that have not signed or ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to do so without further delay. New Zealand remains a steadfast supporter of this Treaty. The CTBT’s adoption in 1996 was a clear statement of our shared determination to end nuclear testing – and help to put the brakes on nuclear arms racing.
As part of New Zealand’s strong support for nuclear disarmament we are also a State Party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. The TPNW is playing an important role in strengthening international humanitarian law and the global norm against nuclear weapons. It sends an unambiguous signal against nuclear weapons, and the need for their elimination. We urge all states to join.
And we urge the nuclear weapon states to implement their outstanding nuclear disarmament obligations under the NPT, and to enter into strategic dialogue with a view to lowering tensions between them, and facilitating progress on nuclear arms control and disarmament.
The credibility of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime is at a critical juncture. We must reverse the slide in nuclear disarmament and arms control.
For our part, New Zealand remains steadfast in our commitment to achieving tangible efforts toward nuclear disarmament with a view to their total elimination.
Thank you.