Minister on mission to contain nuclear arsenals
Disarmament Minister Phil Twyford is in New York City this week, leading a bipartisan delegation to the United Nations.
Twyford’s ultimate goal is an almost impossible one: the abolition of nuclear weapons.
This is probably why he has set himself something a little more achievable: ensuring the “nuclear non-proliferation treaty remain[s] an important part of the architecture of peace”.
Twyford, along with National’s Todd Mcclay and Labour’s Jenny Salesa, are visiting New York for a five-yearly review conference on the UN’S Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty or NPT.
The conference will check in on the treaty and, as Twyford says, try to ensure it remains relevant.
The treaty allowed the five countries that tested nuclear weapons before 1967 — the UK, the
US, Russia, China and France — to keep them, and to encourage those countries to slowly disarm.
It’s had some success but there are failures too. India, Pakistan, North Korea, and probably Israel, have developed nuclear weapons despite the NPT, Russia has raised the prospect of nuclear war, and nuclear states such as the UK are now talking about increasing their arsenals. Twyford is realistic about progress. “It’s been a tough time for nuclear arsenals in recent years. Progress has stalled if not reversed,” he said in an interview with the Herald before leaving for New York.
Twyford is the Disarmament and Arms Control Minister, a portfolio established when New Zealand went nuclear free in 1987. The role was junked by National in 2011, but revived by Labour in 2018.