Letter to President Biden Regarding the AUKUS Submarine Agreement

June 10, 2022
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States

Mr. President,

We are deeply concerned about the potential effect of the AUKUS submarine agreement on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). If the submarines are fueled with weapons-grade High Enriched Uranium (HEU), as currently contemplated, it could severely affect our national security by undermining the entire nonproliferation regime.

The NPT was under severe strain even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s accompanying general threats of use of nuclear weapons, which undermined the credibility of assurances of non-use of nuclear weapons against Non-Nuclear Weapon States and, more broadly, the NPT concept that security for such states is enhanced by the renunciation of nuclear weapons. Enormous tension had already been generated by arsenal modernizations, which all the P5 Nuclear Weapon States have been pursuing; P5 neglect of previous commitments to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies; and the lack of progress in the disarmament negotiations mandated by Article VI of the treaty.

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