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The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the negotiations on a new nuclear arms pact between the US and the Russian Federation following the lapsing of the 16 year long “New Start Agreement” signed in April 2010 and extended in 2021. As the SACP, we welcome this resumption of negotiations on this important treaty.

The ownership, proliferation and control of nuclear weapons is too important a subject in international relations to be left unregulated as this would most likely lead to an increase in global insecurity and vulnerability of humanity to catastrophic nuclear military confrontation between nuclear powers. 

As the world’s primary nuclear-weapon-holding nations, the Russian Federation and the US bear a unique responsibility to prioritise global welfare in managing their nuclear arsenals. The absence of a binding agreement between these two nations to establish regulations and parameters for nuclear weapons between them poses a grave security risk for the global community.

The movement towards an agreement in this particular instance can only lead to better global security and we therefore welcome the beginning of these negotiations. At a time of heightened political tension in international affairs, it is commendable that a negotiation of this significance has been determined as a necessary one by both parties involved. 

While we welcome this negotiation and anticipate a new agreement on this matter, we do not function on naivety that pacts and treaties are in themselves the irreversible guarantee of peace with no internal risks and internal contradictions.  The reliability of treaties is subject to their ability to fulfil  the interests of the parties involved within a framework of international balance of power to be implemented over a limited period of time. This means that treaties are time bound and subject to those that lead particular nations at a given time and their persuasions leading therefore to their relative precariousness.

The underlying question of the balance of power at a given historical moment governs whether a treaty holds sustainably or whether it loses its effectiveness. The act of signing a pact is not the most important aspect of the regulation of security questions. Rather, it is the ability of its content to meet the national security requirements of each party involved within a shared goal of global security. 

Within an imperialist global framework, the existence of Russia as a nuclear power has historically stood as a deterrent to what would have been unbridled US power as a first mover nation in the invention and proliferation of nuclear weapons and the science behind it. As anti-imperialist forces, we recognise this reality and that it remains valid to this day and we therefore view the negotiations resumed between US and Russia as integral to the continued formation and reformation of international balance of forces within an imperialist system while advocating for a world without nuclear weapons as a long-term solution. In the intervening period the regulation of nuclear weapons through diplomatic engagement is central to prevent escalation of conflict and destabilisation of international security. 

We call for the continued diplomatic engagement between states on control of nuclear weapons with specific reference to the nuclear weapons holding nations. The United Nations’ role on nuclear weapons remains key to coordination of a lasting and genuine nuclear disarmament process. However, it is the ultimate defeat of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism that will ultimately create conditions for the end of utilisation of nuclear science for military purposes.

Issued by South African Communist Party