Treaty of Rarotonga

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The Treaty of Rarotonga is the common name for the South Pacific Nuclear
Free Zone Treaty, which formalizes a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the South
Pacific. The treaty bans the use, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons
within the borders of the zone.

It was signed by the South Pacific nations of Australia, the Cook Islands,
Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa on the island of Rarotonga
(where the capital of the Cook Islands is located) on August 6, 1985, and
has since been ratified by all of those states.

The Federal States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau are not
eligible, since they are part of the so-called Compact of Free Association
which provides access to nuclear submarines of the United States of America.

Protocols binding other states

There are three protocols to the treaty, which have been signed by the five
declared nuclear states, with the exception of Protocol 1 for China and
Russia who have no territory in the Zone.

1. no manufacture, stationing or testing in their territories within the
Zone
2. no use against the Parties to the Treaty, or against territories where
Protocol 1 is in force
3. no testing within the Zone

In 1996 France and the United Kingdom signed and ratified the three
protocols. The USA signed them the same year but never ratified them. China
signed and ratified protocols 2 and 3 in 1987.

The treaty's different provisions apply variously to the Zone, to the
territories within the Zone, or globally.

"South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone" means the area :

* south of the Equator
* north of the 60th parallel south (the northern limit of the Antarctic
Treaty zone)
* east of the 115th meridian east
* west of the 115th meridian west (the western limit of the Treaty of
Tlatelolco Latin American Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone)

plus three projections north of the Equator to include the territory and
territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, Nauru, and Kiribati, but minus the
northwest corner beyond Australian territorial waters and near Indonesia
(and the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone).

Several islands in the Indian Ocean also belong to Australia and are
therefore part of the zone.

"Territory" means internal waters, territorial sea and archipelagic waters,
the seabed and subsoil beneath, the land territory and the airspace above
them. It does not include international waters. Article 2 says "Nothing in
this Treaty shall prejudice or in any way affect the rights, or the exercise
of the rights, of any State under international law with regard to freedom
of the seas."

The Treaty is an agreement between nation-states and as such of course
cannot apply to those who have not signed the treaty or protocols, for
example the four countries not signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty,
who are all nuclear powers.

List of states and territories

* The only territory north of the Equator that is part of the Zone is in
Kiribati, the only state straddling the Equator.
* Micronesia is outside the Zone except for Kiribati.
* Melanesia is inside the Zone except for Indonesia which is in the
Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.
* Polynesia is inside the Zone except for Easter Island which is in the
Latin American Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, the Polynesian outliers of
Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro in Micronesia, Hawaii, and several uninhabited US
Minor Outlying Islands.