Media Release: No [air] space for ambiguity with nuclear-capable B-52s

17th February 2023

Nobel Peace Prize recipient ICAN has called for Australia to never accept a policy of ‘neither confirm nor deny’ about whether nuclear weapons will be within Australian territory.

“Australia should reject any presence of nuclear weapons in its territory, including airspace and waters, even if in transit”, said ICAN Australia director Gem Romuld. “We are a sovereign state and can both set and should adhere to the rules.”

The proposal to deploy US nuclear weapons-capable B-52 bombers at RAAF Tindal in the Northern Territory would contribute to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in our region. ICAN maintains that stationing these aircraft at Tindal or elsewhere would be a breach of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (SPNFZ), or Rarotonga Treaty.

Article 5 of the SPNFZ states that ‘Each Party undertakes to prevent in its territory the stationing of any nuclear explosive device.’ As a state party, it is essential that Australia does not allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on the B-52 aircraft anticipated to be stationed at RAAF Tindal. With dedicated facilities including an ammunition depot, maintenance and parking areas, the presence of the B-52s goes beyond mere transit.

“We should not abrogate to any other state our sovereign responsibility to comply with our treaty obligations. And the US is the only one of the five nuclear-armed members of the UN Security Council which has not joined the protocols of the Raratonga Treaty,” said Romuld.

The Australian Labor Party’s commitment to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) represents a widely-supported and important rejection of nuclear weapons. Advancing a clear humanitarian response to the destructive power of these weapons is particularly pivotal at this uncertain global time.

The TPNW prohibits hosting nuclear weapons as well as assistance with their use or possession. The deployment of nuclear-capable aircraft in Australia risks inconsistency with the SPNFZ and TPNW and would undermine both Australian government policy and the ALP’s national policy platform.

“As over half the deployed US B52s cannot carry nuclear weapons, it is entirely feasible for B52s visiting Australia not to bring nuclear weapons into our country,” Romuld stated.

“There can be no place for semantics when it comes to nuclear war-planning”, said Romuld. “Should Australia move ahead with US B-52s at Tindal, the federal government must demand clarity from the US about their nuclear capabilities. Our country cannot be allowed to sleepwalk into becoming a facilitator of weapons of mass destruction.”

Media inquiries: Jesse Boylan: 0457 777 504 – jesse@icanw.org

At 2am this morning (10am EST Tuesday January 24), The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reset the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, surpassing its previous setting of 100 seconds to midnight. The new time indicates we are now at the most dangerous moment in history since the Doomsday Clock was launched in 1947—two years after the devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

Today’s new setting of the global Doomsday Clock highlights the need for urgent action to reduce the growing threat of the accidental or deliberate use of nuclear weapons. 

The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of our proximity to annihilation (midnight), is one of the most authoritative annual assessments of how humanity is tracking on the biggest issues: the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and global heating. 

Each January, the setting of the Clock provides informed and wise counsel to citizens and officials worldwide about our key challenges and where our collective priorities should lie. The time is set with expertise from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Board of Sponsors, which includes ten Nobel laureates.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists attribute their decision to move the clock forward largely because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. They state: “Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict—by accident, intention, or miscalculation—is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high.” They note that Russia’s war on Ukraine has put in jeopardy the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the United States—New START—and undermined global efforts to combat climate change. Continued expansion and modernisation of nuclear arsenals in other nuclear-armed states exacerbates the danger.

Instead of forging ahead with the $170bn AUKUS nuclear submarines deal and allowing US nuclear-capable B-52 aircrafts to be stationed on our soil, Australia should act to halt the existential threats posed by global heating and potential nuclear catastrophe. The best way forward on nuclear weapons is to sign, ratify and implement the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), as we have joined every other treaty banning indiscriminate, inhumane weapons. 

The Australian Government has committed to “redouble our efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” and Labor made a pre-election commitment to sign and ratify the TPNW in government. While Australia attended the first Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW and ended its opposition to the treaty at the UN First Committee, a decision to sign is pending. 

Dr. Tilman Ruff AO, board member of ICAN Australia and public health and infectious diseases physician, says “With the brutal and illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine under cover of nuclear threat, and nuclear disarmament stalled, the danger of nuclear war is as great now as it has ever been. Our security requires all governments to join the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty and act to finally eliminate these doomsday weapons.”

Dr Ruff said “With only 90 seconds to midnight, people all over the world must join the efforts to turn back the clock, there is no time to waste.”

On the second anniversary of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entering into force, the co-chairs of a cross-party group of parliamentarians, Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW, have released a statement calling on Australia to sign and ratify the treaty. 

The statement—which is co-written by Russell Broadbent MP, Liberal member for Monash, Senator Jordon Steele-John, Greens Senator for Western Australia, and Josh Wilson MP, Labor member for Fremantle, co-chairs of the group—celebrates the already ninety-two countries who have signed the treaty and urges the Australian Government to create a meaningful and lasting legacy by doing the same. “History shows that prohibition treaties on weapons of mass destruction are essential to facilitate progress towards their elimination,” they wrote. “Under the TPNW, nuclear weapons are stigmatised and rejected in their entirety, and a clear pathway is laid out for their eventual elimination.” 

ICAN Australia welcomes the statement and agrees that Australia must play a meaningful role in promoting geo-political stability in our region, concurring with the cross-party co-chairs that moving towards a world without nuclear weapons would promote “a common goal of peace, cooperation, and security ” with our Pacific and ASEAN neighbours.

In their statement, the co-chairs acknowledged the “escalating nuclear threats from nuclear-armed states” and the impact of the Russia–Ukraine war on global security. “At a time when the risk of nuclear conflict has significantly increased, and the existing disarmament and non-proliferation architecture has also been under pressure, the TPNW presents a vital opportunity for new and serious progress in moving towards a world without nuclear weapons.”

ICAN Australia Director Gem Romuld, says that “the second anniversary of the entry into force of the TPNW should serve as a reminder that nuclear weapons pose the single greatest threat to life on earth, and as long as they exist they can be used. Nuclear weapons are never a legitimate means of defence. Australia’s most powerful contribution to ending these abhorrent weapons will be to sign and ratify the TPNW.”Over 100 Australian federal parliamentarians have pledged their support for the treaty, including the Prime Minister, and the Australian Labor Party has committed to sign and ratify it in government since 2018. 

The full Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW statement can be read here.

In November 2022 the ABC reported on the Australian Government’s planned deployment of up to six US nuclear-capable B-52 aircraft at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory.

 ICAN Australia is deeply concerned that the aircraft may carry nuclear weapons and contribute to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.

 Article 5 of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, or Rarotonga Treaty, states that ‘Each Party undertakes to prevent in its territory the stationing of any nuclear explosive device.’ As a state party, it is essential that Australia does not allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on the B-52 aircraft that are anticipated to be stationed at RAAF Base Tindal. With dedicated facilities including ammunition depot, maintenance and parking areas, the presence of the B-52s goes beyond mere transit.

The Australian Labor Party’s commitment to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) represents a widely-supported and important rejection of nuclear weapons and a clear humanitarian response to the horror they represent, at a crucial time of alarming danger of nuclear war and nuclear disarmament in reverse. The TPNW prohibits hosting nuclear weapons as well as assistance with their use or possession. The deployment of nuclear-capable aircraft in Australia would risk inconsistency with both the Rarotonga Treaty and TPNW, and would undermine both Australian government policy and the ALP’s national policy platform. 

 We are aware that in response to commitments made under the New START treaty, of the United States’ fleet of 87 B-52 aircraft (76 of which are in the active inventory), 41 have been stripped of their nuclear capabilities and carry only conventional weaponry[1].

 The Australian government should secure explicit confirmation from the United States that these aircraft would only carry only conventional weaponry. A ‘neither confirm nor deny’ response would not be acceptable; our existing legal obligations require a clear and unambiguous answer from the US on this issue. 

The Albanese Government must ensure that should this deployment be advanced, any B-52s stationed at RAAF Base Tindal should not be nuclear-capable, consistent with Australia’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and existing treaties.

[1] Hans Kristensen & Matt Korda (2021) United States nuclear weapons, 2021, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

US Embassy officials in Canberra have warned Australia against signing and ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, saying it would be inconsistent with Australia’s policy of nuclear deterrence.

 ICAN Australia Director Gem Romuld said “It’s no surprise that the US don’t want their allies to sign on, because if we claim protection from their so-called ‘nuclear umbrella’ then it helps justify their continued retention and possible use of these illegal and indiscriminate  weapons.”

“The majority of nations recognise that ‘nuclear deterrence’ is a dangerous theory that only perpetuates the nuclear threat and legitimises the forever existence of nuclear weapons, an unacceptable prospect.”

As a non-nuclear weapon state, Australia has ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Rarotonga Treaty (South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Australia has signed many multilateral disarmament treaties, including those prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions. The US has refused to sign some of these, and has failed to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty championed by Australia. Pressure is mounting for Australia to sign and ratify the TPNW, which entered into force in January 2021.

The Australian Labor Party has committed to sign and ratify the treaty in government. Consistent with this position, it participated in the first Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW in June as an observer and ended its formal opposition to it by abstaining on a UN First Committee vote last month, in which the previous government voted no.

The TPNW asserts there are no acceptable circumstances to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons, and outlaws any role for nuclear weapons in a state party’s security doctrine. There is strong support among Australians, with 76% of the population supporting Australia signing and ratifying the treaty, and only 6% opposed (Ipsos 2022). 

The TPNW allows states parties to remain in military alliances with nuclear-armed states, provided they do not assist or cooperate on nuclear weapons. Several US allies have successfully signed and ratified the treaty: New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand. 

“The nuclear weapon ban treaty is a powerful tool to break the current disarmament deadlock. It’s now up to Australia to reject the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons on our behalf. Like New Zealand and the Philippines, we can remain allies without supporting nuclear weapons or assisting in their possible use. A mature relationship and genuine partnership has the capacity to deal with complexity and Australia must not be a nation that facilitates nuclear weapons.”, Romuld said. 

When moving the 2018 motion committing a future Labor government to sign and ratify the TPNW, Anthony Albanese MP said “I don’t argue that this is easy. I don’t argue that it’s simple. But I do argue that it’s just.”