Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty   Recognized nuclear-weapon state ratifiers   Recognized nuclear-weapon state acceders   Other ratifiers   Other acceders or succeeders   Acceder that announced its withdrawal (North Korea)   Non-parties (India, Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan)   Partially recognized state that ratified (Taiwan)
Signed	1 July 1968[1]
Location	Moscow, Russia; London, United Kingdom; Washington D.C., United States[1]
Effective	5 March 1970[1]
Condition	Ratification by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and 40 other signatory states.
Parties	190 (complete list)[1][2] non-parties: India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and South Sudan
Depositary	Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation (successor to the Soviet Union)
Languages	English, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese
Full text
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at Wikisource

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty intended to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament.^[3] Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. A central premise of the NPT is that NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology.^[4]

Opened for signature in 1968, the treaty entered into force in 1970. As required by the text, after twenty-five years, NPT parties met in May 1995 and agreed to extend the treaty indefinitely.^[5] More countries are parties to the NPT than any other arms control agreement, a testament to the treaty's significance.^[3] As of August 2016, 191 states have become parties to the treaty, though North Korea, which acceded in 1985 but never came into compliance, announced its withdrawal from the NPT in 2003, following detonation of nuclear devices in violation of core obligations.^[6] Four UN member states have never accepted the NPT, three of which possess or are thought to possess nuclear weapons: India, Israel, and Pakistan. In addition, South Sudan, founded in 2011, has not joined.

The treaty defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before 1 January 1967; these are the United States (1945), Russia (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), and China (1964). Four other states are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel is deliberately ambiguous regarding its nuclear weapons status.

Several additional measures have been adopted to strengthen the NPT and the broader nuclear nonproliferation regime and make it difficult for states to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons, including the export controls of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the enhanced verification measures of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol.