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by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer

New York — The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, concluded on August 26 without adoption of a final document for the outlining of future measures to achieve nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. Amid differences of opinion in the international community over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia expressed its opposition to the draft. Even as concerns increase over the threat of nuclear weapons’ use, the conference once again broke down, the same conclusion that resulted from the previous conference, held in 2015. Those failures have greatly shaken the NPT regime and made the actual elimination of nuclear weapons recede into the distance. The next review conference is now scheduled for 2026.

A delegate from Russia asked to speak during the plenary session, which was the portion of the conference that ultimately broke down. Previously, the delegate had demanded that revisions be made to some items, implying that they had been politicized. At the plenary session, he explained that an agreement would be impossible because the called-for revisions had not been made.

Although not previously singled out, Russia apparently opposed parts of the document including one that urged return of control to Ukraine of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is located in southern Ukraine and currently occupied by Russia. The president of the conference, Gustavo Zlauvinen, from Argentina, delayed the start of the session, originally scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m., by more than four hours while he continued negotiations with Russia and other countries to reach an agreement. Ultimately, however, he could not change their minds.

At the plenary session, France read aloud a joint statement that included Japan, Europe, the United States, and Ukraine, criticizing Russia for undermining, with its invasion of Ukraine, the nuclear nonproliferation regime and the NPT’s raison d'être. Japan and other participating countries expressed their disappointment. At a press conference after the conference, Mr. Zlauvinen concluded that the invasion of Ukraine was behind the failure to reach an agreement.

The review conference, typically held every five years, had been postponed recently because of the coronavirus pandemic and opened on August 1 for the first time in seven years. In his address to the body, Fumio Kishida, the first Japanese prime minister to attend the conference, said that “every realistic measure” must be taken to achieve a “world without nuclear weapons.” At the conference, A-bomb survivors stressed the importance of, and responsibility for, achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons. However, the five major nuclear weapons states are divided on the Ukraine situation, and there is a deep rift between nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states, which support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), making the reaching of any consensus difficult.

The draft of the failed final document had included language emphasizing that the total elimination of nuclear weapons is an “absolute guarantee” against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. The draft also referred to the need for negotiations for a legally binding “negative security assurance,” which would mean that nuclear weapons states could not engage in attacks on non-nuclear weapons states with nuclear weapons. The draft also made mention of the inhumanity of such weapons and presented the reality surrounding the TPNW including its actual entry into force. On the other hand, the draft language had been significantly backtracked during the process of negotiations, including deletion of the idea of adoption of a “no first use” declaration by nuclear weapons states.

Before the next NPT Review Conference, preparatory committee meetings will be held in Vienna, Austria, in 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2024, and in New York City, in 2025.

(Originally published on August 28, 2022)