Norwegian People’s Aid: Scary that Norway is among those standing in the way of nuclear disarmament

Rapporten Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor shows that 150 countries, three out of four countries in the world, today comply with all the prohibitions of the UN nuclear weapons ban from 2017. Only a minority of 45 countries are still involved in actions prohibited by the treaty.

Over 70 per cent of these countries are European, and one of them is Norway, shows the report, which presents brand new figures on the world’s nuclear arsenals. It is Norwegian People’s Aid that creates the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor in collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Critical of Norway

Secretary General Raymond Johansen of Norwegian People’s Aid is very critical of Norwegian policy in the area.

– In a time of deep concern about the risk of using nuclear weapons, it is terrifying and incomprehensible that as many as 32 out of 47 countries in Europe still do not meet the requirements of the treaty that prohibits these weapons of mass destruction, and that Norway does not either, emphasizes Johansen in a press statement .

Incompatible with NATO membership

State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that Norway’s security is based on the NATO alliance.

– The Nuclear Prohibition Treaty is incompatible with NATO membership and security policy cooperation with the USA, France and Great Britain, he writes in a reply to NTB.

He adds that the purpose of NATO’s nuclear deterrent is to preserve peace, prevent coercion and deter aggression.

– As long as countries like Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, NATO must maintain a nuclear weapons capacity, is Vad Petersson’s response to the criticism.

135.000 Hiroshima-bomber

In the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor report, it is estimated that the nine nuclear weapon states together possess 12,347 nuclear warheads.

At least 9,585 of them are available for use and have a combined explosive power of over 135,000 Hiroshima bombs. The remaining nuclear warheads are obsolete and are in storage in Russia and the United States awaiting dismantling.

It is also estimated that 3,904 warheads, more than 40 percent of those available for use, are currently deployed with operational military forces and are ready for use on missiles in silos, mobile missiles and submarines, as well as on bomber bases.

Safety of nuclear weapons

Instead of reducing the number of nuclear weapons and minimizing the role they play, as they should, the report points out that the nuclear powers and their allies, on the contrary, are increasingly basing their security on nuclear weapons.

– This is happening at a time when the security policy situation has significantly worsened, at the same time as the weaknesses of nuclear deterrence have become clearer, it is emphasized.

Johansen believes that Europe has developed into a hotbed of politics and practice that assists and encourages nuclear rearmament. The Secretary-General believes the time is overdue to dare to take up the debate about how Norway as a nation is complicit in the nuclear threat moving ever closer.

Has stopped

Vad Petersson admits that international cooperation on arms control and disarmament has unfortunately stopped.

– The government is working to create movement and build bridges in this work. That is why Norway has participated as an observer in the meetings of the state parties to the nuclear ban treaty, he says.

A dangerous world

Johansen believes that the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons are a reminder that it is dangerous to live in a world where some powerful states insist that their security must be based on the ability for mass destruction.

– But all countries that do not act in line with the nuclear weapons ban are part of the problem. By continuing to legitimize and assist nuclear deterrence, Norway and large parts of Europe are de facto putting sticks in the wheels of nuclear disarmament, and that in a dangerous geopolitical time, says Johansen further in the press release.

The report assesses all the world’s states against the provisions of the ban treaty, which include prohibitions on developing, producing, testing, storing, transferring and using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, as well as allowing the deployment of another state’s nuclear weapons on its own territory. The report also measures progress in the work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons do not preserve the peace

– The world order based on five recognized and responsible nuclear powers is history. It is no longer the case that nuclear weapons preserve the peace, Johansen believes.

He fears that conventional wars, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine, could easily escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.

– Ukraine’s offensive into Russia is also a recent example that not even nuclear powers can avoid being attacked, emphasizes Johansen.

He points out that it is a fact that the risk of nuclear weapons is increasing, and that the answer must be mutual disarmament.

– It amazes me that Norwegian politicians do not have a more open debate about this, says Johansen.

“Umbrella States”

The Ban Monitor report puts the spotlight on the world’s 34 “umbrella states”, i.e. states such as Norway, which are covered by the nuclear powers’ extended nuclear deterrent. Most umbrella states are European countries.

According to the report, the umbrella states bear a large part of the responsibility for billions of dollars being poured into the nuclear powers’ development and possession of nuclear weapons, and for the nuclear threat that the whole world is forced to live under.

All 34 umbrella states assist or encourage acts prohibited by the nuclear weapons ban, the report claims. Primarily because they support nuclear weapons doctrines, which means they support the possession and potential use of nuclear weapons on their behalf.

Many also participate in nuclear weapons planning and nuclear strike exercises, contribute aircraft that can deliver nuclear weapons, provide conventional aircraft and other resources that support nuclear forces, or assist with logistics and technical support, it says.

– Not on Norwegian soil

Secretary of State Vad Pedersen recalls that former Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen determined in 1957 that nuclear weapons should not be deployed on Norwegian soil in peacetime.

– This principle is still the basis of Norwegian nuclear weapons policy, he says.

– Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic consequences for people and the environment. A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, emphasizes Vad Petersson.