UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The head of the United Nations warned the world Monday that “humanity is just a misunderstanding, a miscalculation of nuclear annihilation.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of ‘nuclear weapons and finally achieve a nuclear-free world. He particularly cited the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons in conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, two regions “on the brink of catastrophe.”
Guterres told scores of ministers, officials and diplomats attending the month-long conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the meeting comes “at a critical time for our collective peace and security”. and “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”.
The conference is “an opportunity to define the measures that will help avoid certain disasters and put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons,” the secretary-general said.
But Guterres warned that “geopolitical weapons are reaching new highs,” nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons are in arsenals around the world and countries seeking “false security” are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on “weapons of the doomsday”.
“All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and the guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening,” he said, “And when crises, with nuclear overtones, are emerging from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula until the invasion of Russia.Ukraine”.
Guterres called on conference participants to take several actions: urgently strengthen and reaffirm “the 77-year-old norm against the use of nuclear weapons,” work relentlessly toward the elimination of nuclear weapons with new commitments to reducing arsenals, addressing “simmering tensions”. in the Middle East and Asia” and promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
“Future generations are counting on your commitment to take a step back from the abyss,” he implored ministers and diplomats. “This is our time to fulfill this fundamental test and lift the cloud of nuclear annihilation once and for all.”
In force since 1970, the Non-Proliferation Treaty known as the NPT has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement, with some 191 countries as members.
Under its provisions, the five original nuclear powers—the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain, and France—agreed to negotiate to eliminate their arsenals one day, and non-nuclear-weapon nations pledged do not acquire them in exchange. for a guarantee of being able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
India and Pakistan, which did not join the NPT, got the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal, but neither confirms nor denies this. However, the treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (US President John F. Kennedy envisioned up to 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international disarmament cooperation.
The meeting, which ends on August 26, aims to build a consensus on next steps, but expectations of a substantial deal, if any, are low.
Still, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji and more than a dozen of the nations’ foreign ministers are among those expected to attend at least 116 countries, according to a UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly before the conference.
Other speakers at Monday’s launch include UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Germany’s foreign minister , Annalena Baerbock.
The five-year review of the NPT was supposed to take place in 2020, when the world was already facing many crises, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is coming at a time of heightened fears of a nuclear showdown, spurred by comments from Russia following its February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the time that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen” and stressed that his country is “one of the most powerful nuclear powers”. Days later, Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be on the highest alert.
Patricia Lewis, former director of the United Nations Disarmament Research Institute who is now in charge of international security programs at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London, said that “President Putin’s threats of to use nuclear weapons have shocked the international community.”
Russia is not only a signatory to the NPT but also a depositary of treaty ratifications and in January joined the other four nuclear powers in reiterating the declaration by former US President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that “a nuclear war can never be won and must be won. It will never be fought,” he told The Associated Press.
Lewis said the countries participating in the review conference will have a difficult decision to make.
To support the treaty and what it stands for, “governments will have to address Russia’s behavior and threats,” he said. “On the other hand, doing so risks dividing treaty members, some of whom have been persuaded by Russia’s propaganda or at least are not as concerned, for example, as NATO claims.”
And “Russia will undoubtedly strongly object to being named in statements and outcome documents,” Lewis said.