Malaysia
Addressing the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW (1MSP) in Vienna in June 2022, Malaysia described the meeting as ‘a gathering of particular moment in our collective endeavours to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons’, adding that the TPNW ‘is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture’.[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 (2023) |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | Yes |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | 10 (30%) |
| 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 | Yes (Ratified 1996, Bangkok) |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1970) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2008) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1991) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 2000) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No (Rescinded 2018) |
| Additional Protocol | No (Signed 2005) |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
Together with South Africa, Malaysia was appointed by the 1MSP as a co-chair of an informal working group responsible for promoting universalisation of the TPNW. In this capacity, it co-facilitated a high-level signing and ratification for the TPNW in the margins of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2022. Five states signed and two ratified the Treaty on this occasion.2
At the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, Malaysia welcomed the TPNW’s entry into force and the convening of its 1MSP, and said that it ‘remains convinced that the TPNW complements and strengthens the NPT, by constituting effective legal measures under Article VI of the NPT’.3 In a closing statement to the NPT Review Conference, Malaysia and 64 other TPNW supporters urged ‘all states committed to attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons to join the TPNW without delay’.4
Marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, Saifuddin Abdullah, said that the TPNW ‘is underpinned by strong ethical and security imperatives and rests on a firm legal foundation’. He called on ‘all states that have not yet done so to join the Treaty’ and said that Malaysia stands ready ‘to engage with them towards this end’.5
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2022, Malaysia commended the TPNW’s newest signatories and states parties ‘for having taken an important step in consolidating the Treaty, which will undoubtedly continue to grow in strength’.6
Recommendations
- Malaysia should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
- Malaysia should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.
- Malaysia should bring into force its Additional Protocol with the IAEA.