Kuwait
Kuwait voted in favour of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the UN Diplomatic Conference in 2017 and has consistently voted in favour of the annual UN General Assembly resolutions on the TPNW, including in 2024. Kuwait 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) | No |
| 2MSP delegation size (% women) | N/A |
| 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 1989) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2003) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1972) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 1997) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes (7 Mar 2002) |
| 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
At the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Preparatory Committee session in July 2024, Kuwait called on all states ‘to strive to rid humanity of [nuclear] weapons and work to harness the material and human capabilities allocated to them for the sake of progress and development’.1
At a high-level UN event to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2024, Kuwait emphasised its firm position in support of nuclear disarmament and the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.2
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2024, Kuwait called for ‘greater efforts’ to achieve a world free of weapons of mass destruction, which would ensure ‘a safer and more prosperous future for coming generations’.3
At the same meeting, the Arab Group, of which Kuwait is a member, emphasised the importance of the TPNW and the active participation of Arab states in its negotiation. The TPNW ‘places nuclear weapons in their logical position as weapons whose possession, use or threat of use conflicts with the most basic rules of international humanitarian law’, it said.4
In 2022, Kuwait welcomed the TPNW’s entry into force and the convening of its First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP). It stressed that the TPNW, rather than contradicting the NPT, is part of the process of fulfilling the NPT’s goals.5
Recommendations
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Kuwait should urgently adhere to the TPNW.