May 27, 2025
The Right Honourable Mark Carney, PC, OC
Prime Minister of Canada
May 20, 2025
Dear Prime Minister,
As you assume the weighty responsibilities of your office, Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament (CLND) wishes to bring to your attention several issues of grave import for national and international security. CLND, a project of the Canadian Pugwash Group, is supported by over 1000 Order of Canada recipients from all walks of life and from across the country and has consistently advocated for making progress on nuclear disarmament and for Canada to exercise leadership internationally on issues related to nuclear disarmament.
It is no exaggeration to say that we are experiencing an especially challenging and dangerous period in international relations with core norms regarding the sanctity of borders and restraint in nuclear weapons policies and practise being abandoned. The metaphoric “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which tracks existential threats to humanity, is now set at 89 seconds to midnight the closest to disaster it has been since the dawn of the atomic era.
Despite the very real risks to global security evident today, we believe that opportunities for progress remain possible and that Canada can make a significant contribution to strengthening the rules-based international security order. Following are four specific steps that we suggest your government could undertake. They would constitute a positive agenda of action to advance long-standing Canadian objectives for a world without nuclear weapons.
Completion by Russia and the US of a follow-on accord to the New START arms reduction treaty
Both President Trump and President Putin have spoken positively for nuclear disarmament. There are current indications that Moscow and Washington may resume their long suspended strategic dialogue. A principal goal of that dialogue should be the negotiation of a successor accord to the New START treaty which is slated to expire in February 2026. In the absence of a follow-up to New START there would be no longer any legally binding constraint on the nuclear arsenals of these two powers (which still account for approximately 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons).
A renewal of mutual restraints by the two nuclear superpowers would be stabilising not only for their bilateral strategic relations but also for the global nuclear order. The resumption of negotiations cannot be taken for granted, however. It will be necessary for allies and partners of the United States to speak out in favour of this negotiation being expedited and brought to a productive conclusion within the remaining timeframe.
Advocate for the adoption of a No First Use (NFU) policy on nuclear weapons
All states parties to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) have committed to the reduction of the saliency of nuclear weapons in their respective policies and doctrines. Unfortunately, in recent years a reverse trend is evident amongst many nuclear-armed-states with an expansion of the scenarios and circumstances in which nuclear weapon use would be contemplated. Adoption of a No First Use (or “sole purpose”) policy would strictly restrict any use of nuclear weapons to retaliation if it was attacked with nuclear weapons. At present only China and India amongst the nine nuclear-armed-states have espoused No First Use. Canada could advocate for its nuclear allies to adopt this stance. This change in declaratory policy would help raise the “threshold” for nuclear weapon use and facilitate further progress in meeting universal and Alliance objectives in nuclear disarmament.
Press for the initiation of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT)
Canada has long exercised leadership with respect to a treaty that would ban the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Although the conclusion of such a treaty has been for years an agreed aim of the international community and figures as a priority goal of the NPT States Parties, the dismal reality is not a single day of negotiation of such a treaty has occurred.
Part of the reason for this failure resides in states confining the negotiation of an FMCT to the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva which in theory is the UN’s sole forum for the negotiation of multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. The Conference on Disarmament operates under an extreme version of the consensus principle which provides each of its member states a de facto veto over all decisions. Canada has tried via chairing several UN authorized expert groups to unblock this logjam, without success. It is overdue for concerned states to liberate the FMCT negotiations from the straitjacket of the Conference on Disarmament and seek the commencement of negotiations in the UN General Assembly, where there is no veto. Given the investment Canada has made over decades in an FMCT it is incumbent for us to champion a diplomatic process that can jump start negotiations.
Help to repair the schism within the NPT by engaging with TPNW parties
The global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime embodied in the NPT is under great stress. The last two of its quinquennial review conferences (2015 and 2022) have failed to agree an outcome document. A key fissure has opened up around the issue of how best to advance towards nuclear disarmament. Article VI of the NPT stipulates that the nuclear weapon states under the treaty have an obligation to achieve nuclear disarmament. Regrettably, movement in recent years has been away from nuclear disarmament and towards expansion and modernization of nuclear weapons.
Frustration over this state of affairs prompted non-nuclear weapon state members of the NPT to negotiate in 2017 and adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This treaty codifies a higher standard of nuclear disarmament than that contained in the NPT. To date the TPNW has 73 state parties and 94 signatories and entered into force in January 2021.
Influenced by their nuclear-armed allies, Canada and other NATO members have refused to endorse the TPNW. However, this has not prevented several of our allies from attending annual meetings of TPNW state parties as observers. Such attendance is without prejudice to Canada’s position regarding signing on to the TPNW but provides a tangible sign of respect towards adherents of the TPNW and an opportunity to explore how best to reconcile respective positions with a view to the common goal of strengthening the NPT. We would encourage the Canadian Government to participate in the first Review Conference of TPNW state parties in late 2026 as an observer in order to carry on the constructive and bridge-building role that has characterized Canada’s nuclear disarmament diplomacy for so many years.
At this time of new beginnings for the government, the eminent Canadians represented by Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament, respectfully ask that due consideration is given to taking up the above recommendations and position Canada once again to be a leader in the on-going struggle to keep the nuclear demons at bay and reinforce the peaceful regime for global nuclear governance.
We look forward to receiving your considered response to these proposals and stand ready to meet and otherwise engage with you or your appointed representatives on this subject matter at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Alex Neve, OC, LLD (Hon.), LLM
Chair
Steering Committee
Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament
cc: The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs
cc: The Honourable David McGuinty, Minister of National Defence
Read the letter here as pdf file: May 20, 2025 CLND letter to PM Carney
May 8, 2025 – Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (CNWC) is pleased to announce its new name: Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament (CLND). This change is to enable the organization’s name to better describe the breadth of the work we have done and will continue to do.
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