Australia's treaty links to nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament

Richard Tanter of the Nautilus Institute writes that Australia is tied to issues of both nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation through a wide range of bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements to which Australia is a party. Beyond the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, these include the ANZUS treaty, bilateral security agreements with Japan and Indonesia, the Pine Gap agreement, and UNSC 1540. Tanter argues that "that concentration on the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the associated international regime is understandable, but dangerously limited, both politically and conceptually”. Tanter argues that the Australian and Indonesian governments should “assuage anxieties about the consequences of Indonesian nuclear power development, and dampen an emerging vicious cycle of security misperceptions." At the same time, Tanter concludes that the Australian government "would make a simple but effective contribution to dampening regional proliferation concerns and misperceptions with a clear statement from the highest level of government that Australia has no intention of developing uranium enrichment facilities.