Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 17, July - August 1997

Brazil Near to Signing NPT

On 20 June, Brazil's President, Fernando Henrique Carduso, requested Congress give its approval for Brazilian accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), traditionally opposed by the State as discriminatory. Congress is expected to approve the move shortly. Brazilian accession will leave only one American State, Cuba, outside the NPT, alongside India, Israel and Pakistan.

Carduso told Congress:

"This is an important moment for Brazil's international relations... The [NPT] accords...are a legally perfect guarantee that Brazil will not develop a nuclear weapon. ... Much has changed since the Cold War... There is ever-greater convergence of the objectives of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation... It was time we decided to influence the process from within."

Brazil is already a member of the Tlatelolco Treaty, establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in Latin America.

Report: Brazil drops resistance to nuclear weapons treaty, Reuters World Service, 20 June.

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