UK and France urged to join treaty banning nuclear weapons

Source: Pax Christi

Pax Christi England and Wales, Pax Christi Scotland and Pax Christi France have joined other peace organisations in the UK and France in calling on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Emanuel Macron to rescind their opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and to engage with the treaty processes.

As the Second Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW takes place at the UN in New York, representatives of the UK and French governments have once again been conspicuous by their absence.

Whilst the TPNW now has the support of the majority of UN nations, the UK and France have remained resolute in their opposition to it arguing, despite its failures to produce any meaningful progress towards disarmament, that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the best mechanism for dealing with the threat of nuclear weapons.

Andrew Jackson, Chief Executive of Pax Christi England and Wales, who helped co-ordinate a letter to the Prime Minister and President making the call, said: "We knew that the UK and France had agreed to co-operate on nuclear weapons policy as part of the Lancaster House Treaties agreed between the two countries in 2010 and that, as recently as March this year, they had reiterated their opposition to the TPNW in a joint leaders' declaration from Rishi Sunak and President Macroni.

Despite that opposition, we see the two countries as the best placed amongst the nuclear armed states to move the disarmament process forward by recognising the strength of the TPNW and its contribution to the NPT process.

We wanted to write jointly to the Prime Minister and President to demonstrate our shared concerns and the strength of feeling amongst peace organisations in the two countries on the failure to engage with the TPNW. Neither country sends observers to the meetings of States Parties to the TPNW and we wanted to urge them to reconsider that approach as a first step.

Both countries also need to address the legacy of harm from their nuclear testing which is one of the issues covered by the TPNW and a focus of the meeting in New York. If they continue to refuse to engage with the treaty then they risk isolation as the majority of the world builds on its foundations and says very clearly that it wants the world rid of nuclear weapons".

LINKS

Read the letter here: https://paxchristi.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Joint-letter-to-Prime-Minister-Sunak-and-President-Macron_TPNW_21-Nov-23-1.pdf

Read a joint interfaith statement here: https://actquakers.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TPNW-2MSP-interfaith-statement.pdf