NATO NUKES

NPT News:

New NATO nuclear weapons doctrine threatens 'fragile' Non-Proliferation Treaty, warns Greenpeace

3 May 2000
NEW YORK -- A new NATO nuclear strategy paper proposed for adoption on May 9 would wreck negotiations at the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks in New York by expanding the role of nuclear weapons in NATO.
press release

Greenpeace Accuses Nuclear Weapons States of a lame Attempt to Excuse the Inexcusable

1 May 2000
NEW YORK -- Greenpeace today warned that the five Nuclear Weapons States have decided to fiddle while the world may burn. Hopes of a positive outcome at the 2000 Review meeting of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty may be all but dashed by a statement from the U.S., China, France, Russia, and the U.K. about their progress.
press release

Money Blown On Nuclear Weapons Better Spent on Sustainable Development

24 April 2000
NEW YORK -- Greenpeace today demanded that the United Nations bring down 'mental walls' separating two meetings taking place at the same time at the UN headquarters where, in one room, expenditure on nuclear weapons is maintained, and in another, the lack of investment on sustainable development is regretted.
press release
Read the Greenpeace paper on NPT and CSD
(pdf) 'Hiroshima, Rio, Seattle, New York'

Russia's Test Ban Ratification Turns The Heat On The US To Do Likewise

21 April 2000
MOSCOW -– The United States and China must immediately follow the lead of the Russian Duma which today ratified the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, international environmental organisation Greenpeace said today in welcoming the Russian initiative.
press release

NPT Background:

Briefing Papers

Greenpeace's Anti-nuclear Campaigns

New NATO nuclear weapons doctrine threatens 'fragile' Non-Proliferation Treaty, warns Greenpeace

Organization calls on non-nuclear NATO states to reject dangerous expansion of nuclear weapons use

NEW YORK, 3 May 2000 -- A new NATO nuclear strategy paper proposed for adoption on May 9 would wreck negotiations at the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks in New York by expanding the role of nuclear weapons in NATO. Acceptance of the proposal would directly contravene the legally binding NPT-commitments of the Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) to move towards nuclear disarmament. Greenpeace condemned the NATO strategy paper as dangerous and hypocritical and called on non-nuclear NATO states to reject it at the upcoming NATO meeting. The NPT Review Conference concludes on May 19.

The new strategy - revealed in the Swiss newspaper Die Tagesanzeiger - expands the role of NATO nuclear weapons to counter alleged biological and chemical weapons threats from non-nuclear countries. Previously, the threat of the use of nuclear weapons has been raised only as a deterrent against other nuclear- armed states. By expanding the strategic role of NATO's nuclear weapons, the NWS members of NATO - UK, France and the US - are seeking to provide a new justification for their continued possession and development of nuclear weapons - significantly reducing the prospects of further reduction in nuclear arsenals.

"The Nuclear Weapons States are meant to be reducing their nuclear arsenals, not inventing new justifications for maintaining them", said Greenpeace Disarmament campaigner William Peden. "The fact that NATO is planning to even discuss this strategy in the middle of the NPT, when they are attempting to convince other countries of their intention to disarm, is the height of cynicism and dishonesty. NATO's proposed doctrine could also threaten the 'non-proliferation' norm by providing an additional incentive and excuse for the possession of nuclear weapons.

"If NATO targets non-nuclear weapons states with nuclear weapons, they will only provide renewed justification for those states to address the strategic imbalance by developing a nuclear weapons capacity," warned Peden.

To save the NPT talks and prevent this dangerous new strategy being adopted, Greenpeace called on non-Nuclear Weapons States members of NATO* to reject the new doctrine.

"Non-NWS members of NATO are here at the NPT talks arguing for greater efforts on nuclear disarmament, yet at the same time are about to agree a strategy that would give nuclear weapons new legitimacy. This is a dangerous double-standard".