Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste deposited its instrument of ratification for the TPNW with the UN Secretary-General on 20 June 2022, the eve of the Treaty's First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) in Vienna. On 1 August 2022 it also ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
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) | Observer |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | 9 (33%) |
| 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 (Acceded 2003) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2022) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Acceded 2003) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Acceded 2003) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | No (Signed 2009) |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | 18 Mar 2024 |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No (Modified signed 2009) |
| Additional Protocol | No (Signed 2009) |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
Timor-Leste’s Council of Ministers approved a draft resolution in February 2022 to ratify the TPNW,1 which the National Parliament adopted with unanimous support on 25 April 2022.2 Speaking in support of the resolution, Adaljíza Magno, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste, said: ‘We know the consequence of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and we don’t want the world to experience the same thing.’3
When Timor-Leste attended the 1MSP as an observer, as the Treaty had not yet entered into force for it, Magno said that Timor-Leste ‘continues to believe in the power of peaceful dialogue and constructive role played by all states to promote a conducive atmosphere for a peaceful denuclearisation of the world’.4
In a closing statement to the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, Timor-Leste and 64 other TPNW supporters urged ‘all states committed to attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons to join the TPNW without delay’.5
Recommendations
- Timor-Leste should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
- Timor-Leste should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures. @Timor-Leste should bring into force its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol with the IAEA.