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Austria
Nuclear-weapon-free state
Has joined the TPNW
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SIGNED
20 September 2017 |
RATIFIED
8 May 2018 |
IN FORCE
22 January 2021 |
Status
Austria has signed and ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It was among the original 50 states parties to the treaty when it entered into force on 22 January 2021.
Signature and ratification
Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Austria, signed the TPNW at a high-level ceremony in New York when it opened for signature on 20 September 2017.
Addressing the United Nations ahead of the signing ceremony, Kurz said: “Today, we often hear that nuclear weapons are necessary for security. This narrative is not only wrong, it is dangerous. The new treaty provides a real alternative: a world without nuclear weapons, where everyone is safer.”
Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Austria, signs the TPNW in 2017. Photo: ICAN
Jan Kickert, the then-permanent representative of Austria to the United Nations, deposited the country’s instrument of ratification with the UN secretary-general on 8 May 2018. The Austrian national council approved the ratification on 21 March 2018 and the federal council approved it on 5 April 2018.
Austria was the ninth state to ratify or accede to the TPNW.
Representatives of Austria, ICAN, and the UN celebrate Austria’s ratification of the TPNW in 2018.
National position
Austria welcomed the TPNW’s entry into force in 2021, describing it as “the result of impressive international cooperation” and an expression of the “clear will by the overwhelming majority of the world”. It has also described it as “an important step toward the achievement of a nuclear-free world”.
In 2022, Austria said that the TPNW “is not only fully complementary with the [Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968] but brings a crucial and urgently needed reinforcement of the norms for nuclear disarmament and against the proliferation of nuclear weapons”.
“While practically all vectors on nuclear weapons point in the wrong direction, the TPNW is the one international development that shows the way out of the nuclear weapons paradigm,” it said in 2023.
Implementation
In accordance with Article 2 of the TPNW, Austria submitted a declaration to the UN secretary-general on 9 February 2021 confirming that it does not own, possess, or control nuclear weapons, has never done so, and does not host any other state’s nuclear weapons on its territory.
Per Article 12, Austria has promoted universal adherence to the TPNW, including by co-sponsoring and consistently voting in favour of an annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”.
In 2023, it urged all states that have not yet done so to join the TPNW, describing it as “one concrete step that states can take to strengthen the flailing global disarmament and non-proliferation regime that needs all the reinforcement it can get”.
In 2019, it said: “With every additional signature and ratification, states send a very powerful signal that having a say on nuclear weapons is not exclusive to states who possess them. The security of all our citizens is equally important and equally at risk.”
Austria has promoted adherence to the TPNW in ministerial-level bilateral meetings, opinion articles, and social media posts.
Meetings of states parties
Austria hosted the first meeting of states parties to the TPNW in its capital, Vienna, in 2022. The Austrian ambassador Alexander Kmentt served as president of the meeting.
The minister of foreign affairs of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg, said: “As long as these horrendous weapons exist, they are a threat to us all. Nuclear risks have not been this high for decades … The logic that nuclear weapons provide security is a fundamental error.”
Referring to the humanitarian pledge to prohibit nuclear weapons, which Austria initiated in 2014 and a majority of the world’s nations endorsed, he declared: “We have fulfilled our pledge.”
Austria said that that the first meeting of states parties “delivered concrete results” with the adoption of a “strong declaration” and “ambitious Vienna action plan to implement the treaty”.
On the eve of the meeting of states parties, Austria hosted a one-day intergovernmental conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.
At the second meeting of states parties in 2023, Austria said: “The TPNW could not be more important given the dire state of the multilateral nuclear disarmament regime,” adding that “a security approach that is based on the threat of global mass destruction … is not only morally unacceptable but a high-risk gamble with the security of all humanity”.
The states parties appointed Austria as the coordinator of a consultative process to better promote and articulate the legitimate security concerns enshrined in the TPNW and to “challenge the security paradigm based on nuclear deterrence”. A report with recommendations will be submitted to the third meeting of states parties in 2025.
ICAN representatives meet with Schallenberg in Geneva in 2019. Photo: BMEIA
TPNW negotiations
Austria participated in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 states that voted in favour of its adoption. It served as a vice-president of the bureau.
In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, Austria argued, in response to critics of the process, that there is no “wrong time” for negotiating a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. “If you look at the risks, what is the alternative? Is doing nothing a better strategy?”
In its closing statement, Austria called on “those countries that still rely on nuclear weapons in their security policy to join us [in supporting the treaty] for their own security and for the security of all humanity”.
Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa comprised a “core group” of states that played a leading role in bringing the negotiations about and ensuring their ultimate success.
In 2016, Austria co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence negotiations on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.
ICAN campaigners and Austrian diplomats celebrate the Nobel peace prize awarded to ICAN in Oslo in 2017. Photo: ICAN
Before the negotiations
In 2014, Austria hosted the third in a series of intergovernmental conferences on the “humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons”, at which it launched a pledge, subsequently endorsed by 127 states, to cooperate “in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons”.
The “humanitarian pledge”, as it became known, was instrumental in building momentum and support for convening the TPNW negotiations.
ICAN campaigners meet with Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister of foreign affairs of Austria, in New York in 2015. Photo: ICAN
Officials representing 158 states participate in the Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in 2014. Photo: ICAN
Further information
Nuclear-weapon-free state
Has joined the TPNW
[HIGHLIGHTS]
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|
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SIGNED
20 September 2017 |
RATIFIED
8 May 2018 |
IN FORCE
22 January 2021 |
Status
Austria has signed and ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It was among the original 50 states parties to the treaty when it entered into force on 22 January 2021.
Signature and ratification
Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Austria, signed the TPNW at a high-level ceremony in New York when it opened for signature on 20 September 2017.
Addressing the United Nations ahead of the signing ceremony, Kurz said: “Today, we often hear that nuclear weapons are necessary for security. This narrative is not only wrong, it is dangerous. The new treaty provides a real alternative: a world without nuclear weapons, where everyone is safer.”
Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Austria, signs the TPNW in 2017. Photo: ICAN
Jan Kickert, the then-permanent representative of Austria to the United Nations, deposited the country’s instrument of ratification with the UN secretary-general on 8 May 2018. The Austrian national council approved the ratification on 21 March 2018 and the federal council approved it on 5 April 2018.
Austria was the ninth state to ratify or accede to the TPNW.
Representatives of Austria, ICAN, and the UN celebrate Austria’s ratification of the TPNW in 2018.
National position
Austria welcomed the TPNW’s entry into force in 2021, describing it as “the result of impressive international cooperation” and an expression of the “clear will by the overwhelming majority of the world”. It has also described it as “an important step toward the achievement of a nuclear-free world”.
In 2022, Austria said that the TPNW “is not only fully complementary with the [Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968] but brings a crucial and urgently needed reinforcement of the norms for nuclear disarmament and against the proliferation of nuclear weapons”.
“While practically all vectors on nuclear weapons point in the wrong direction, the TPNW is the one international development that shows the way out of the nuclear weapons paradigm,” it said in 2023.
Implementation
In accordance with Article 2 of the TPNW, Austria submitted a declaration to the UN secretary-general on 9 February 2021 confirming that it does not own, possess, or control nuclear weapons, has never done so, and does not host any other state’s nuclear weapons on its territory.
Per Article 12, Austria has promoted universal adherence to the TPNW, including by co-sponsoring and consistently voting in favour of an annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”.
In 2023, it urged all states that have not yet done so to join the TPNW, describing it as “one concrete step that states can take to strengthen the flailing global disarmament and non-proliferation regime that needs all the reinforcement it can get”.
In 2019, it said: “With every additional signature and ratification, states send a very powerful signal that having a say on nuclear weapons is not exclusive to states who possess them. The security of all our citizens is equally important and equally at risk.”
Austria has promoted adherence to the TPNW in ministerial-level bilateral meetings, opinion articles, and social media posts.
Meetings of states parties
Austria hosted the first meeting of states parties to the TPNW in its capital, Vienna, in 2022. The Austrian ambassador Alexander Kmentt served as president of the meeting.
The minister of foreign affairs of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg, said: “As long as these horrendous weapons exist, they are a threat to us all. Nuclear risks have not been this high for decades … The logic that nuclear weapons provide security is a fundamental error.”
Referring to the humanitarian pledge to prohibit nuclear weapons, which Austria initiated in 2014 and a majority of the world’s nations endorsed, he declared: “We have fulfilled our pledge.”
Austria said that that the first meeting of states parties “delivered concrete results” with the adoption of a “strong declaration” and “ambitious Vienna action plan to implement the treaty”.
On the eve of the meeting of states parties, Austria hosted a one-day intergovernmental conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.
At the second meeting of states parties in 2023, Austria said: “The TPNW could not be more important given the dire state of the multilateral nuclear disarmament regime,” adding that “a security approach that is based on the threat of global mass destruction … is not only morally unacceptable but a high-risk gamble with the security of all humanity”.
The states parties appointed Austria as the coordinator of a consultative process to better promote and articulate the legitimate security concerns enshrined in the TPNW and to “challenge the security paradigm based on nuclear deterrence”. A report with recommendations will be submitted to the third meeting of states parties in 2025.
ICAN representatives meet with Schallenberg in Geneva in 2019. Photo: BMEIA
TPNW negotiations
Austria participated in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 states that voted in favour of its adoption. It served as a vice-president of the bureau.
In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, Austria argued, in response to critics of the process, that there is no “wrong time” for negotiating a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. “If you look at the risks, what is the alternative? Is doing nothing a better strategy?”
In its closing statement, Austria called on “those countries that still rely on nuclear weapons in their security policy to join us [in supporting the treaty] for their own security and for the security of all humanity”.
Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa comprised a “core group” of states that played a leading role in bringing the negotiations about and ensuring their ultimate success.
In 2016, Austria co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence negotiations on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.
ICAN campaigners and Austrian diplomats celebrate the Nobel peace prize awarded to ICAN in Oslo in 2017. Photo: ICAN
Before the negotiations
In 2014, Austria hosted the third in a series of intergovernmental conferences on the “humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons”, at which it launched a pledge, subsequently endorsed by 127 states, to cooperate “in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons”.
The “humanitarian pledge”, as it became known, was instrumental in building momentum and support for convening the TPNW negotiations.
ICAN campaigners meet with Sebastian Kurz, the then-minister of foreign affairs of Austria, in New York in 2015. Photo: ICAN
Officials representing 158 states participate in the Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in 2014. Photo: ICAN
Further information
[PARTNERS]
IFOR Austria
ICAN Austria
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
[LOCALSUPPORT]
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