Austria
Austria hosted the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW (1MSP) in its capital, Vienna, in June 2022. In his opening statement to the 1MSP, Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Schallenberg, said: ‘As long as these horrendous weapons exist, they are a threat to us all. Nuclear risks have not been this high for decades … The logic that nuclear weapons provide security is a fundamental error.’[1]
TPNW Status
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compliance in 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compliant |
| Test | Compliant | |
| Possess or stockpile | Compliant | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compliant |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compliant |
| (d) | Use | Compliant |
| Threaten to use | Compliant | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compliant |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compliant |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compliant |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2022) |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | Yes |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | 21 (29%) |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted yes |
| Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
|---|---|
| Party to an NWFZ | No |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1969) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 1998, Annex 2 state) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1973) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 1995) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No |
| Additional Protocol | Yes |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | Cleared |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
One day before the 1MSP, Austria also hosted an intergovernmental conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.3
At the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, Austria said that the TPNW ‘is not only fully complementary with the NPT but brings a crucial and urgently needed reinforcement of the norms for nuclear disarmament and against the proliferation of nuclear weapons’. It called on all states ‘to join the TPNW and to engage actively and constructively with the profound arguments on which it is based’.4
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2022, Austria said that the 1MSP 'delivered concrete results’ with the adoption of a ‘strong political declaration’ and ‘ambitious Vienna Action Plan to implement the Treaty’. ‘Now is the time to step up and support an unequivocal stance against nuclear weapons.’5
Recommendations
- Austria should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
- Austria should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.