Topic:
Country: Germany
Delegate Name: Lanell Gardiner
The ongoing struggle concerning nuclear disarmament has been and continues to be an international issue that is difficult to solve with open-ended treaties and little to no enforcement. Since the invention in the mid 1900s, nuclear weapons have become the greatest threat to humankind, and even with disarmament movements and efforts to deactivate existing nukes, the global threat of nuclear war is ever present. Treaties concerning disarmament have united countries in the past, but cooperation and peace talks only do so much to stop the issue of emerging nuclear states and prevent nuclear testing. Without a global agreement on the usage, storage, and testing of nuclear weapons, the threat of mass destruction only grows.
As a member country of NATO, Germany is among a small group of European countries that stores nuclear weapons for it’s fellow nations. For this reason, Germany has neither ratified or signed The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW); however, Germany signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and continues to support international cooperation and efforts against nuclear testing. There is growing support across German activist groups and political parties to move forward with nuclear disarmament treaties and actions, such as the removal of other countries’ weapons from German soil. Germany will take the opinions of its people into consideration in the upcoming conference, however the wishes of the government will be this delegate’s main concern. Taking into account the current state of affairs in Europe, Germany will likely not accede to the TPNW (or any treaty similar to it) because of the open aggression shown by Russia, as this would collide with their membership in NATO.
Germany supports a nuclear-free future, one where no country feels threatened by the potential for nuclear war or feels the need to hoard weapons of mass destruction. A main concern should be on preventing the creation of more weapons and the emergence of new, hostile countries wanting access to nuclear-weapons. Germany hopes to improve dialogue and cooperate in addressing the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons – in the field of victim assistance or the remediation of areas contaminated by nuclear testing. Working closely with fellow NATO member states and other countries interested in the prevention of nuclear testing is Germany’s goal going into this conference.
