By Denis Bright
Where are the cheers across Australia for the new Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as finalized by the recent UN Conference on 7th July 2017?
In the past, Australia developed a bipartisan balance between continued membership of the Australia-US Alliance, support for the Charter of the United Nations and commitment to its own national sovereignty.
Article 1 of the ANZUS Treaty of 1951 indeed rejected the need for sabre-rattling in the settlement of international disputes.
New Zealand officially left the Alliance in 1986 after continued participation compromised its national sovereignty (Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, US Department of State Online).
In 1984, the ANZUS Treaty began to unravel when New Zealand declared its country a nuclear-free zone and refused to allow U.S. nuclear-powered submarines to visit its ports. Two years later, U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Australian Foreign Minister Bill Hayden concluded a series of bilateral talks by confirming that their countries would continue to honor their obligations to one another under the ANZUS Treaty, in spite of the fact that the trilateral aspects of the Treaty had been halted. On September 17, 1986, the United States suspended its treaty obligations toward New Zealand.
In Australia, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction towards greater solidarity with the US Alliance and away from a diversity of foreign policies which required the US to adjust to policy diversity over issues like the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the War in Vietnam and even the presence of nuclear-powered ships carrying nuclear weapons into New Zealand during the 1980s.
Perusal of the National Archives of Australia (NAA) provides scope for historical research on just how federal governments on both sides of politics responded to issues like the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the arrival of nuclear-powered US naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons or military aircrafts in transit to bases like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or US bases in the Middle East.
There are 876 documents alone covering aspects of Australia’s responses to the challenges posed by nuclear weapons. A few of these documents are available online. Others can be requested. Still others are partially or completely restricted under the Archives Act 1983.
A spokesperson for NAA advised that some sensitive strategic historical files prior generated before late 1993 (the current limit for public access) are still not listed or partially closed to the Australian public. Many sensitive historical files have not been assessed for clearance. Specialized staff are called in to peruse these files when applications are made for photocopying or digitalization. The reproduction costs are passed onto the applicants.
In time, research students will have accessed all available documents to examine the extent to which participation in the US Alliance has eroded our capacity for independent public analysis of international security issues affecting Australia prior to late 1993.
Many of these documents were also released by the US to other countries where archives have differing time limits and retrieval policies from Britain to Jamaica, Zimbabwe, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada or the US itself through the Department of State and private archival networks.
The current generation of students can be kept busy for years to test embedded assumptions about national sovereignty within states that are linked to US Global Alliance Systems.
At a time when recent US administrations have become more proactive about the need for solidarity within US Global Alliance Systems, there is a pressing need for elected leaders of both government and opposition parties to be more concerned about protection of our national sovereignty.
The case for Australian support for the Draft Treaty was eloquently presented by Professor Ramesh Thakur of the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU in a public lecture at Griffith University’s Southbank Campus in Brisbane on 13 July 2017.
Professor Thakur emphasized that the threat of nuclear proliferation is not confined to current media emphasis on nuclear proliferation in North Korea (DPRK). The nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan has been simmering for decades. It is now complicated by the acquisition of new nuclear weapons technology by India in a dangerous balance of power strategic game with China.
All nine nuclear weapons states are clinging to their nuclear weapons despite commitments make in Articles VI and VII of NPT’68.
After fifty years, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT’68) failed to eliminate the vast nuclear arsenals. Pax Christi Victoria has communicated the grim statistics from the US Arms Control Association.
Australian Catholics should be encouraged by the Vatican’s support on the UN Committee for the new Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It is the pace of nuclear proliferation which motivated 122 states in the General Assembly to support the UN Committee to negotiate a new Draft Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This was concluded on 7 July 2017. The Netherlands opposed the Draft and Singapore abstained.
Sixty-nine UN member states including Australia were absent from the UN Committee deliberations.
The Treaty will be open for signature to all States at UN Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2017, and enter into force 90 days after it has been ratified by at least 50 countries. The momentum for ratification is not encouraging. Excessive loyalty to the US Nuclear Weapons Umbrella is a greater challenge to national sovereignty than the current controversy over dual citizenship for members of parliament.
The problem of loyalty to the US Nuclear Umbrella did not arise with the election of Donald Trump.
In the last days of the Obama Administration on 17 October 2016, the US Mission to NATO urged NATO member states to cling to their nuclear umbrella by boycotting the UN Committee to negotiate a new Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. All NATO countries responded positively to this appeal from the US Government and disassociated themselves from the 122 countries supporting the Draft Treaty on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.
Should humanity survive the current volatility in US strategic policies, future generations will be aghast at the capacity of the US Government to influence both government and opposition parties within the NATO network of countries. Even centre- left governments in NATO countries towed the directive from Washington.
With nuclear proliferation on the rise within NPT’68, the need for renewal of controls on nuclear weapons is more important than ever. Barry McGuire’s classic protest song (Eve of Destruction) has assumed a new relevance as the quest for a new Age of Aquarius through the Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons becomes ever more important international agenda.
The Conference of The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) in Melbourne between 8-10 September 2017 will provide peace activists with a chance to interact with an array of local and overseas speakers:
Australia is offered fresh wisdom from across the Tasman through the web sites of the NZ Minister for Foreign Affairs and his Department (Minister for Foreign Affairs Gerry Brownlee).
Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee has welcomed the successful conclusion of negotiations for a new international treaty to ban nuclear weapons at the United Nations in New York.
New Zealand joined more than 120 other states in voting in favour of the final text of a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” Mr Brownlee says.
“Some countries like New Zealand have already enacted a national ban on nuclear weapons. This treaty now provides the first legal prohibition on nuclear weapons at a global level.
“Since none of the states which currently possess nuclear weapons took part in the negotiations, we need to be realistic about the prospects of this treaty leading to a reduction in nuclear weapons in the short term.
“However, the treaty is an important step towards a world free of nuclear weapons, which has been a long-held goal for New Zealand,” Mr Brownlee says.
The treaty will be open for signature by states from 20 September 2017 and will enter into force after 50 states have ratified it.
There is a problem for our national sovereignty if Australia’s official voice on the terrifying issue of nuclear proliferation is not being expressed to support the representatives of Ireland, Austria, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico as co-sponsors of the Draft Treaty on new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Perhaps the National Government of Prime Minister Bill English in New Zealand can assist Australian leaders with their sovereignty blind-spots as the tabloid press focuses on more trivial problem of members of parliament who happen to hold dual citizenship through their family connections.
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