Africa's Policy Imperatives Issue 9, October 2011: African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty: An Update - Russia's Ratification of Protocols and India Hopes for an Exemption, by Noël Stott

Issue 7 of ‘Africa’s Policy Imperatives’ focused on the Treaty of Pelindaba and recent developments in its implementation including the establishment of its compliance body, the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE). It also outlined progress made by both the US and the Russian Federation in ratifying the Protocols attached to the Treaty which are of relevance to them. Previous editions provided brief overviews (and updates) of Africa’s general participation in international efforts to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation through a number of conventions, protocols and agreements. These conventions and agreements include the:

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT);
• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT);
• Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC);
• Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC); and,
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540.

This Issue (Issue 9, October 2011) updates Issue 7 and has been compiled as a result of research undertaken since 2007 by the Norwegian-funded ISS’ “Africa’s Development and the Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction Project”. This project aims to identify and strengthen Africa’s role in these international efforts in the context of the continent’s developmental imperatives.

India hopes it can import uranium from South Africa

By Arvind Padmanabhan

Pretoria, (IANS) India hopes it can import uranium from South Africa by impressing upon Pretoria to favourably change its regime towards New Delhi, notwithstanding the implications of what is called the Treaty of Pelindaba.

Speaking to journalists on the margins of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit, India’s envoy here Virendra Gupta said while South Africa has uranium deposits, India has now started talks on importing the fuel.

“It appears to us that there will need to be an exception,” Gupta said, referring to the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty that prohibits signatories from entering into nuclear commerce with any nation that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.