Vol. IV / No. 6 | September 2024
Authors:
Ali Abdullah Wibisono (Associate Professor in International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia)
Anastasia Artantri Widyautami (Teaching Assistant in International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia)
Summary
The establishment of AUKUS as a maritime alliance in the South Pacific has raised concerns about the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. The plan to provide Australia, a non-nuclear weapon state, with SSNs could be viewed as taking advantage of the loopholes in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including its Comprehensive Safeguard Agreement (CSA) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agreement between Australia and the IAEA does not impose further restrictions on the development of nuclear material and technology for purposes other than nuclear weapons proliferation. This shortcoming could potentially encourage other countries to use similar justifications to install their own nuclear naval reactors, free from the IAEA inspection. With that possibility coming to a realisation, Indonesia submitted a working paper, “Nuclear Naval Propulsion” to the 2022 UN Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT, expressing concerns about potential issues arising from the exchange of nuclear technology between NWS and NNWS. This commentary concludes that while nuclear weapons non-proliferation diplomacy must continue, the NPT and its additional protocols must adopt some changes. Such amends must include formulating strict conditions for non-nuclear weapon states to be able to build nuclear technology that can be integrated into their weapons platform and exempted from IAEA inspections.
Keywords: AUKUS, Comprehensive Safeguard Agreement, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, IAEA