Which one of the following statements does not pertain to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → It is a disarmament treaty, requiring all states to give up certain kinds of weapons.
Option (1) It is a disarmament treaty, requiring all states to give up certain kinds of weapons. Does not pertain (Correct). Disarmament requires all states to give up certain kinds of weapons, as the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions did. The NPT of 1968 was instead an arms control treaty: it only regulated who could acquire nuclear weapons.
Option (2) It did not abolish nuclear weapons, it limited the number of countries that could have them. Pertains (Incorrect).
Option (3) Countries that had tested and manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were allowed to keep their nuclear weapons. Pertains (Incorrect).
Option (4) Countries that had not tested and manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were to give up the right to acquire nuclear weapons. Pertains (Incorrect).
NCERT (2025-26): “Traditional Security and Cooperation … Traditional views of security do not rule out other forms of cooperation as well. The most important of these are disarmament, arms control, and confidence building. Disarmament requires all states to give up certain kinds of weapons. For example, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) banned the production and possession of these weapons. More than 155 states acceded to the BWC and 193 states acceded to the CWC. Both conventions included all the great powers. But the superpowers — the US and Soviet Union — did not want to give up the third type of weapons of mass destruction, namely, nuclear weapons, so they pursued arms control.… Traditional Security and Cooperation … The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 was an arms control treaty in the sense that it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons: those countries that had tested and manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were allowed to keep their weapons; and those that had not done so were to give up the right to acquire them. The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons; rather, it limited the number of countries that could have them.” |