X REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
New York, 1-26 August 2022
GENERAL DEBATE
STATEMENT BY THE DELEGATION OF BRAZIL
Mr. President,
Para empezar, Embajador Zlauvinen, me gustaría felicitarlo por su elección como presidente de esta 10ª Conferencia de Revisión del TNP y por sus arduos esfuerzos en la preparación de este importante evento. Mi delegación conoce bien su liderazgo y sus altas calificaciones y los consideramos activos importantes para lograr resultados significativos. Le prometemos a usted y a su equipo una total cooperación.
2. Brazil subscribes to the statement made on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) by the delegation of Egypt.
Mr. President,
3. The 10th Review Conference is no ordinary event. It takes place at an extremely critical juncture of the global regime of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, which calls for a sense of profound responsibility towards the NPT’s principles and objectives. Moreover, due to Covid-19 pandemic, an unexpectedly long preparatory process was required for the convening of this meeting.
4. For these reasons, Brazil expects that all States Parties renew their efforts on this process with a view to achieving concrete advances in the NPT’s pillars, thus avoiding casting a shadow onto the already battered global security architecture.
Mr. President,
5. The NPT is part of a rules-based order. Rules and norms make us safer. Compliance with them ensures predictability of actions and fosters trust. Conversely, the indefinite postponement to implement some of them breeds distrust and compromise their legitimacy.
6. More than fifty years after the NPT entered into force and thirty years after the end of the Cold War, the continued existence of nuclear weapons, both outside and within the treaty’s regime, runs counter to its norms and rules and remains a stern warning of NPT’s inability so far to realize the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
7. With that in mind, Brazil firmly believes that the measure of success of any NPT Review Conference is inherently related to the reduction of the original asymmetry of rights and obligations for Nuclear-Weapon States (NWS) and Non-Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS). This has been for decades worsened by the persistent implementation gap between non-proliferation and disarmament obligations, therefore undermining the grand bargain that underpins the Treaty.
8. Brazil reiterates that the acceptance by NNWS of the discriminatory nature of the NPT can only be understood as a temporary concession, an interim measure that must be conducive to a future in which all NPT Member States are Non-Nuclear-Weapon States.
Mr. President,
9. Alongside our NAC partners, Brazil has warned about the dangers of overvaluing the role played by the possession of nuclear weapons in national security strategies and of the continuing belief in nuclear deterrence as a security guarantee. From our point of view, such weapons spawn an elusive and precarious security. They turn the world less stable, less secure and invite further proliferation, while putting the whole world at existential risk. The substantial increase in nuclear tensions since the beginning of this year is a powerful demonstration of this fact.
10. Brazil is of the view that the time is ripe for the States parties to the NPT to take a dispassionate, sober look into it and make resolute efforts to achieve the treaty’s full promise of effective nuclear disarmament, including with complementary agreements.
11. One of the greatest achievements in this regard in recent years has been the adoption in 2017 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Recognizing that any use of nuclear weapon would generate a humanitarian catastrophe, the TPNW delegitimizes those weapons as instruments of power.
12. Let me be clear on the following: nothing in the TPNW stands in the way for the realization of the step-by-step or gradual approach. Those who reject the TPNW are more than welcome to come up with constructive suggestions that will make the gradual approach work or to produce something better.
13. In the past years Brazil – and most countries represented here – have done everything to support the gradual approach. Yet these concerted efforts yielded meagre results, if any.
Mr President,
14. Brazil attaches great importance to all efforts to prevent the spreading of nuclear weapons, both vertically and horizontally. The NPT-based regime cannot countenance the increase of number of possessors of nuclear weapons, currently almost double the number of NWS at its signature.
15. NNWS contribute decisively to the non-proliferation regime, including through the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones. By creating the first nuclear-weapon-free zone in a permanently inhabited area, through the entry into force of the Treaty of Tlatelolco and the establishment of OPANAL, Latin America and the Caribbean has set an example in this regard.
16. Moreover, Brazil values regional arrangements as best practices based on the principle “neighbors watching neighbors”. This prompts me to recall the 30th anniversary of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), celebrated last year. ABACC is at the center of an innovative and effective verification and safeguards arrangement, built on the complementary work of two international agencies. Its exemplary nature was recognized by the UN General Assembly through resolution A/RES/76/52, adopted last year by consensus.
Mr President,
17. In May 2022, Brazil submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) its initial proposal for special procedures to be applied to nuclear material used in naval nuclear propulsion, pursuant to Article 13 of the Quadripartite Agreement. Nothing in the NPT precludes the use of nuclear energy for such purposes, which are fully consistent with the IAEA safeguards regime. In pursuing the legitimate goal of naval nuclear propulsion, Brazil is committed to transparency and open engagement with the IAEA and ABACC, ensuring their ability to fulfil their non-proliferation mandates.
Mr President,
18. Since its inception, we have expressed support to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) as a suitable legal framework for further progress in the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme. We call upon all parties concerned to comply fully with its provisions.
19. Brazil has condemned the nuclear and missile tests conducted in past years by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in violation of relevant UNSC resolutions. We must strive to find a platform for dialogue to push forward the realization of transparent, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Mr President,
20. Brazil has always supported the timely priority your presidency has conferred to the issue of peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Broad access to nuclear medicine, radiation medicine techniques and radiotherapy remains a long-standing challenge for most of the NPT constituency. Innovative ways to enhance the IAEA's capacity to deliver on these are needed. Is Technical Cooperation Fund should be strengthened with a view to enhancing the capacity of States, particularly least-developed countries, to avail themselves of the opportunities it affords.
20. Tangible progress in the promotion and transfer of nuclear technology for sustainable socioeconomic progress in developing countries has intrinsic value. It should not be conditioned to progress in other pillars, not least that of nuclear disarmament.
Mr President,
There can be no normalcy in the international order as long as the nuclear threat remains. The existence of nuclear weapons entails the acceptance of the possibility of their use, which could result in the demise of humankind.
This brings me to conclude by emphasizing that decisions and deliberations made here must form a balanced and coherent whole that strengthen the value of this treaty in realizing its greater goal of a world free from nuclear weapons.
Thank you.
