SPNFZ Treaty

France ratifies protocols to SPNFZ Treaty

By Bernadette Hussein

France has finally ratified the Protocols to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. It had signed the protocols in Fiji six months ago but did not ratify it until September 20.

Many feel that France’s readmission as a post-Forum dialogue partner may have been one of the reasons why the protocols were ratified just a week after the South Pacific Forum meeting in

Majuro in early September.

France’s new ambassador to Fiji, Michel Jolivet, handed the instrument of ratification signed by President Jacques Chirac to the treaty’s depository, Secretary-General of the South Pacific Forum leremia Tabai. Both Tabai and Jolivet expressed the hope that this demonstration by France of its commit ment to end testing would be an encour agement to all nations to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as soon as possible and finally bring the nuclear testing era to an end. France had signed the protocols to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Raratonga, on March 25 this year, along with the United Kingdom and the United States. The treaty renounces nuclear explosive devices, prevents their stationing within the SPNFZ and guards against testing and the dumping of nuclear waste in the region. Under Article Three (a) of the treaty, each party agreed not to manufac ture or acquire, possess or have control over any nuclear explosive device by any means anywhere inside or outside the SPNFZ. The treaty’s three protocols state that: France, the UK and US undertake to apply the basic provisions of the treaty to their territories in the zone; nuclear explosive devices not be used against any party to the treaty; and there be no nuclear testing in the zone. The other two nuclear powers, China and Russia, have also signed and ratified the protocols toward a nuclear-free South Pacific. ■