Egypt
Egypt voted in favour of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the UN negotiating conference in 2017 and has consistently voted in favour of the annual UN General Assembly resolutions on the TPNW, including in 2024. Egypt maintains policies and practices that are compatible with all of the prohibitions in Article 1 of the TPNW, and can therefore sign and ratify or accede to the Treaty without the need for a change in conduct.
TPNW Status
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: compatibility in 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compatible |
| Test | Compatible | |
| Possess or stockpile | Compatible | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compatible |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compatible |
| (d) | Use | Compatible |
| Threaten to use | Compatible | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compatible |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compatible |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compatible |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2024) |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | Yes (observer) |
| 2MSP delegation size (% women) | 2 (0%) |
| 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 (Signed 1996, Pelindaba) |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1981) |
| Ratified the CTBT | No (Signed 1996, Annex 2 state) |
| Party to the BWC | No (Signed 1972) |
| Party to the CWC | No |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes (In force 1982) |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No |
| Additional Protocol | No |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
At the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Preparatory Committee session in July 2024, Egypt criticised the nuclear-weapon states for their continued ‘procrastination’ in implementing their legal obligations under Article VI of the Treaty. Instead of pursuing disarmament, they are taking steps ‘in the opposite direction’, it said.1
During the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in September 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Badr Abdelatty, expressed concern that ‘States possessing nuclear weapons are modernising their arsenals and indirectly threatening the use of nuclear weapons without any genuine, serious efforts being made to create a world free of nuclear weapons’.2
At a high-level UN event to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2024, Abdelatty described nuclear weapons as ‘the greatest threat to humanity’. ‘Banning nuclear weapons and putting in place timely and practical procedures for their elimination are steps that cannot afford further delay,’ he said.3
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2024, Egypt expressed disappointment that the recently adopted ‘Pact for the Future demonstrated a low level of ambition to address the worrying state of disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament’.4
At the same meeting, the New Agenda Coalition, of which Egypt is a member, noted the consolidation of the TPNW regime, ‘with positive steps towards its universalisation and the instrumentalisation of the action plan’ adopted at the First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) in 2022.5
Egypt observed the Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP) to the TPNW in 2023. ‘We acknowledge the progress achieved thus far under the banner of the TPNW,’ it said. ‘The entry into force of the Treaty was accomplished in a record time and the number of signatories and parties continues to increase. The rest of the international community needs to positively engage with the work of the Treaty.’6
Recommendations
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Egypt should urgently adhere to the TPNW.
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Egypt should conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol (AP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
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Egypt should ratify the Pelindaba nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) Treaty, which it signed in 1996.
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Egypt should also ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and adhere to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).