NPT Full Form

Full form of NPT is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty  which was signed in 1968 by numerous major nuclear and non-nuclear states, pledging their cooperation in preventing nuclear technology from spreading. Although the NPT did not prevent nuclear proliferation, it was a major success for arms control advocates in the context of the Cold War arms race and mounting international concern about the consequences of nuclear war because it established a precedent for international cooperation between nuclear and non-nuclear states to prevent proliferation.

Following the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1963, both countries’ leaders hoped for further, more comprehensive weapons control accords. Given the high expenses of developing and deploying new and more technologically advanced nuclear weapons, both nations were interested in establishing agreements that would help to moderate the pace of the arms race and limit strategic weapons development competition. Four years after the first treaty, the two countries signed an Outer Space Treaty prohibiting the deployment of nuclear weapons systems in space as satellites. Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States also secured an agreement on the conclusion of an international non-proliferation treaty, which is significantly more significant.

History

It has been known from the dawn of the nuclear age, and the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, that developing nuclear capabilities by states may allow them to redirect technology and materials for military objectives. As a result, the difficulty of preventing such divergences became a hot topic in discussions about nuclear energy’s peaceful use. Due to substantial political divisions between the main powers, initial efforts to build an international system permitting all States to have access to nuclear technology under acceptable safeguards, which began in 1946, were halted in 1949 without achieving this goal. Both the US and the former Soviet Union had tested nuclear bombs at that time and were starting to develop their stockpiles.

The notion of nuclear non-proliferation was discussed in UN debates as early as 1957 and gained major traction in the early 1960s. By the mid-1960s, the structure of a treaty to uphold nuclear non-proliferation as a norm of international behaviour had become clear, and by 1968, the final agreement had been reached on a Treaty to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, enable cooperation for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and advance the goal of nuclear disarmament. Article X of the Treaty called for a conference to be held 25 years after it entered into effect to discuss whether the Treaty should remain in force indefinitely or be extended for a defined period or periods. As a result, at the NPT Review and Extension Conference in May 1995, States Parties to the Treaty agreed to an indefinite extension of the Treaty without a vote, and it was determined that review conferences should be held every five years.

The Review Process of NPT

As a result, during the NPT Review and Extension Conference in May 1995, States Parties to the Treaty agreed to an indefinite extension of the Treaty without a vote and resolved that review conferences should continue. The NPT’s key role in ongoing worldwide efforts to promote nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament was reaffirmed in the Final Document, which represented consensus language on practically all significant issues of the Treaty. In addition, the Document underlined that any new State party to the Treaty shall be admitted solely as a non-nuclear-weapon State, regardless of its nuclear capabilities, after noting that the Conference deplored India and Pakistan’s nuclear test explosions in 1998.

The integration in the Document of a set of practical actions for methodical and progressive attempts to implement Article VI of the Treaty was the most crucial and delicate achievement. These milestones serve as benchmarks against which the States Parties’ future development can be judged. The nuclear weapon states’ agreement, for the first time, to commit categorically to the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, leading to nuclear disarmament, is one of the most frequently cited among them.

The 2015 NPT Review Conference is expected to address a number of topics, including those discussed at the 2010 Conference: the universality of the Treaty; nuclear disarmament, including specific practical measures; nuclear non-proliferation, including the promotion and strengthening of safeguards; measures to advance the peaceful use of nuclear energy, safety and security; regional disarmament and non-proliferation; implementation of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East; regional disarmament and non-proliferation; regional disarmament and non-proliferation

Aims and Objectives of NPT

• It is necessary to prevent the spread of such weapons
• Nuclear war is unwinnable and should never be conducted
• As our primary obligations, we must avert nuclear war between nuclear-weapon states and reduce strategic threats
• For as long as nuclear weapons exist, they should be used to defend the country, discourage aggression, and avert conflict
• They intend to retain and strengthen their national safeguards against the unintentional or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons
• The Treaty established a safeguards mechanism under the responsibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency to achieve the goal of non-proliferation and as a confidence-building measure between States Parties (IAEA)
• Inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are used to verify conformity with the Treaty
• The Treaty encourages cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear technology and provides all States parties with equal access to this technology, while safeguards prevent fissile material from being diverted for military purposes
• The Treaty’s provisions, particularly article VIII, provide for a five-year assessment of the Treaty’s operation, which was confirmed by the States Parties during the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference

Members of NPT

• A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States
• Four UN member states have never accepted the NPT, three of which possess or are thought.to possess nuclear weapons: India, Israel, and Pakistan
• In addition, South Sudan, founded in 2011, has not joined

Conclusion

The NPT is a three-part global pact intended at restricting the spread of nuclear weapons: (1) non-proliferation, (2) disarmament, and (3) peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The five nuclear-weapon states and the non-nuclear-weapon states have come together to form a “great deal.”

In 1968, the pact was signed, and it went into effect in 1970. It currently has 190 member states.Nuclear weapon states (NWS) are those that have created and detonated a nuclear explosive device before January 1, 1967, according to the Treaty. As a result, all other states are classified as non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS). China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are the five nuclear weapon states.