Australia
Country Spotlight
Australia is a party to all major nonproliferation treaties and export control regimes. After developing a chemical warfare capability during World War II and collaborating with the UK on nuclear weapons testing, Australia no longer maintains offensive WMD programs. In 2021 Australia announced a deal to purchase American nuclear-powered submarines.
See Australia's preformance in:
Region East Asia and the Pacific
31% World’s uranium exports
1985 Australia Group founded
12 British nuclear weapons tests hosted
Nuclear
- Has never possessed or developed nuclear weapons
- World’s third-largest producer and exporter of uranium
- Party to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a nuclear weapons-free zone in the South Pacific
Tutorial on Nuclear 101
Biological
- Has never possessed a biological warfare capacity
- Conducts research on biological materials and biosecurity
- Ratified the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC) in 1977
Tutorial on Biological Weapons Nonproliferation
Australia Overview
Missile
- Will begin to produce its own guided hypersonic missiles
- Is a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and was involved in drafting the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCOC)
- Deploys AGM-158 cruise missiles on its F/A-18A/B aircraft
Tutorial on Missiles and Other WMD Delivery Systems
Overview of The CNS Missile and SLV Launch Databases
Chemical
- Destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles after World War II
- Chairs the Australia Group, which enhances cooperation on controlling the spread of materials related to chemical weapons development
- Ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1994
Tutorial on Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation
NTI Tutorials
Treaties and Regimes Memberships
- NTI
- CNS
Christopher Painter on “From Cyber Attack to Nuclear War: Avoiding Escalation through Cooperation”
Virtual
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11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
The Nuclear Posture Review: What it is and why it matters.
Cooperative Risk Management and Reduction: A New Framework for Nuclear Materials Security
Education Center