ICAN Australia will soon launch a No Nuclear Weapons in Australia Declaration. This Declaration is open to Australian and Pacific Island civil society organisations to sign on. The Pacific Council of Churches has already signed on and NCCA will do so. ICAN is aiming to launch the charter publicly in Canberra in March this year
Australia is taking dangerous moves towards enabling the presence of nuclear weapons, and potentially their launch from Australia.
Following the collapse of the NewSTART Treaty last week, American B52 bombers which have been modified to be unable to carry nuclear weapons can quickly again be made nuclear-capable. This raises serious questions about planned upgrades at RAAF Tindal in the Northern Territory to enable a greater ongoing presence of US B-52 bombers in Australia.
And late last year, Defence officials acknowledged in Senate Estimates that Australia would permit visits by US submarines under the AUKUS agreement that may carry nuclear weapons in future – a direct contradiction of previous assurances that submarines visiting Australia would not be nuclear-armed.
These are dangerous developments which must be resisted strongly across Australian civil society.