Canadian Senate briefing on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Remarks by Ray Acheson, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Part of the reason the government has opposed the TPNW is because of its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation—and in particular, because of the pressure of the United States, United Kingdom, and France on NATO allies to reject this treaty. [...] An excellent article by Norwegian scholar Kjølv Egeland lays out the history of NATO’s discourse and policy on nuclear weapons, showing how over time the United States in particular compelled NATO to include nuclear weapons in its security doctrine, to introduce the concept of nuclear sharing, and to entrench the idea that NATO is—and always will—a “nuclear alliance”. [...] The TPNW is an effort to fulfill the mandate of the NPT, which is to end the nuclear arms race, prevent proliferation, and achieve nuclear disarmament. [...] The NATO statement says the TPNW will not lead to nuclear disarmament, but the mere existence of the TPNW may help facilitate nuclear disarmament through other instruments and agreements, regardless of whether or not nuclear-armed states ever join it. [...] Overall, the core problem with NATO’s position on the TPNW is that it rejects the only treaty categorically outlawing the most destructive weapon on the planet, which positions NATO as a supporter of nuclear weapon possession and possible use, not of nuclear disarmament.