Treaty of Rarotonga

The Treaty of Rarotonga is the common name of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, which formalises a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the South Pacific and bans the use, testing and possession of nuclear weapons within the borders of the zone. It was signed on the island of Rarotonga, where the capital of the Cook Islands is located, on 6 August 1985 by Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It came into force on 11 December 1986 with the eighth ratification and has since been ratified by all of those states. The Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau lie outside the original zone but are eligible to join.