US Urges Australia Not to Sign Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons

Australia will ruin its deterrence relationship with the US if it signs a landmark treaty seeking to ban all nuclear weapons, Washington insists, noting the deal would hamper defense arrangements between the US and its allies.

According to the US Embassy in Canberra, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will fail to address prevailing security threats around the globe but will definitely reinforce divisions between world powers.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons seeks to impose a legally binding ban on all nuclear weapons – including testing and stockpiling such arms – unlike the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which only contained partial restrictions.

Since it was introduced in 2017, the treaty has only garnered non-nuclear signatories while none of the nuclear powers – many of which have signed the NPT – have yet to approve the latter treaty.

Washington has urged Australia not to sign the treaty, claiming it would not allow extending the US ‘nuclear umbrella’ which vows to use America’s massive atomic arsenal to protect some non-nuclear states.

That is a reference to Canberra relying on US nuclear forces to deter any nuclear attack on Australia. Australia has long been under the US nuclear umbrella although Canberra has been a general proponent of nuclear disarmament since signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970.

An embassy spokesperson emphasized that while it understands and shares the desire to advance nuclear disarmament goals, Washington does not believe that progress can be decoupled from the prevailing security threats.

The comments from the US Embassy come in light of the shift in position toward the treaty signaled by the Australian government at the United Nations, where Canberra’s envoy abstained from a vote on the measure after his predecessors consistently voted against it.

Despite the shift, the US is nonetheless looking to effectively turn the country into a military hub geared against China, planning to station six nuclear-capable strategic bombers B-52 Stratofortresses on Australian territory – at a new US-built squadron operations facility near the Royal Australian Air Force military air base Tindal.