Iceland
Iceland boycotted the TPNW negotiations in 2017 and has consistently voted against the annual UN General Assembly resolutions on the Treaty, including in 2022.
TPNW Status
TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compatibility in 2022 | ||
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(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 | Not compatible |
(f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compatible |
(g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compatible |
TPNW voting and participation | |
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UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted no (2023) |
Participated in 1MSP (2022) | No |
1MSP delegation size (% women) | N/A |
Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | N/A |
Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | No |
Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted no |
Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
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Party to an NWFZ | No |
Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1969) |
Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2000) |
Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1973) |
Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 1997) |
IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
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Safeguards agreement | Yes (16 Oct 1974) |
TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
Small Quantities Protocol | Yes (Modified) |
Additional Protocol | Yes |
Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
HEU stocks | No |
Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
Iceland may sign and ratify or accede to the TPNW, but will have to make changes to its policies and practices to become compliant. In September 2022, a proposed resolution instructing the government to sign and ratify the TPNW was submitted to the Icelandic Parliament for the seventh time. It was debated and referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee.1 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised the Parliament that Iceland did not participate in the TPNW’s negotiation in 2017 because, without the involvement of the nuclear-armed states, ‘it was foreseen that no success would be achieved’.2
At the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, Iceland said that the urgent need to fulfil Article VI of the NPT ‘is seriously amplified by the threats of the Russian Federation to resort to nuclear weapons in its senseless war against Ukraine’. It called for a rekindling of the spirit seen in Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital, in 1986 when the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union met to discuss the elimination of nuclear weapons.
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2022, Iceland said that the ‘precarious’ international security landscape has led ‘most states to the realisation that the global community needs to reinvigorate and recommit to the global disarmament and non-proliferation agenda’.4
Recommendations
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Iceland should renounce the possession and potential use of nuclear weapons on its behalf, and ensure that nuclear weapons do not have a role in its defence posture.
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Iceland should comply with its existing obligation under Article VI of the NPT and pursue negotiations in good faith on nuclear disarmament.
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Iceland should urgently adhere to the TPNW. Until it is in a position to do so, it should welcome the TPNW as a valuable component in the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture, work with the Treaty's states parties on practical steps towards disarmament, and attend the meetings of states parties as an observer.