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.[1][2][3]
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 Federated 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.
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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.
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 :
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.
| State | Signed | Deposited |
| Australia | 1985-08-06 | 1986-12-11 |
| Cook Islands | 1985-08-06 | 1985-10-28 |
| Fiji | 1985-08-06 | 1985-10-04 |
| Kiribati | 1985-08-06 | 1986-10-28 |
| Nauru | 1986-07-17 | 1987-05-13 |
| New Zealand | 1985-08-06 | 1986-11-13 |
| Niue | 1985-08-06 | 1986-05-12 |
| Papua New Guinea | 1985-09-16 | 1989-09-15 |
| Samoa | 1985-08-06 | 1986-10-20 |
| Solomon Islands | 1987-05-29 | 1989-01-27 |
| Tonga | 1996-07-02 | 2000-12-18 |
| Tuvalu | 1985-08-06 | 1986-01-16 |
| Vanuatu | 1995-09-16 | 1996-02-09 |
