[49] Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan “Modi flies to Japan, carries long, pending nuclear agreements,” Outlook, 10 November 2016. Although the focus has been on the US-Soviet nuclear arms race, efforts to promote and limit other countries` ambitions and nuclear weapons programs have taken place in the starting blocks, sometimes in the context of the superpower drama. For example, the United States has put aside non-proliferation concerns by ignoring Pakistan`s nuclear weapons program, because Pakistan played a role in the fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Iraq, North Korea and South Africa have continued their nuclear efforts in relative secrecy. During this decade, Iran secretly began acquiring uranium enrichment technologies from Pakistani suppliers. However, Taiwan`s disguised nuclear weapons program has been stifled by U.S. pressure. Further advances in non-proliferation have been made by Argentina and Brazil to pursue nuclear technology solely for peaceful purposes, allegoing fears of a nuclear arms race between the two sides and the conclusion of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the South Pacific. In addition, over the decade, the NPT added 30 new states, including North Korea. January 11, 1978: States participating in the Voluntary Group for Nuclear Weapons Suppliers provide the IAEA with a set of common rules for the export of nuclear weapons. The IAEA will publish the guidelines next month.

For more information, check out The Nuclear Suppliers Group at a glance. In January 2016, the IAEA certified that Iran had complied with the provisional requirements of the nuclear agreement, including the offline inclusion of thousands of centrifuges, the futility of the core of the Arak heavy water reactor and the sale of low-enriched surplus uranium to Russia. The Israeli government refuses to confirm or deny possession of nuclear weapons, even though this is now considered a political secret, after Israeli junior nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu – who was later arrested and convicted of treason by Israel – published evidence of the program in the British Sunday Times in 1986. The IAEA Board of Governors rejected this interpretation. [114] Most countries felt that a further three-month withdrawal period was necessary and others questioned whether North Korea`s notification met the treaty`s requirements for “exceptional events” and “highest interests”. The joint declaration of 19 September 2005 at the end of the fourth round of the six-party talks called on North Korea to return to the NPT and implicitly admitted that it had withdrawn. [50] “India, Japan likely to sign a nuclear agreement during Narendra Modi`s visit to Japan,” The Economic Times, July 11, 2018. The European Union, the United Nations and the United States have all pledged to lift their nuclear weapons sanctions.

While the United States had only suspended existing nuclear sanctions, JCPOA pledged to remove some facilities from the sanctions lists and seek laws to lift suspended sanctions within eight years, as long as the IAEA concluded that Iran`s nuclear activities would remain peaceful.