A Russian official has twice repeated President Vladimir Putin’s new message that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” apparently trying to reverse Putin’s warning after the Ukraine invasion that Russia is a “powerful” nuclear power and any attempt. interfering would lead to “consequences you’ve never seen.” Putin’s comment then dramatically increased global tensions, which escalated even more days later when he ordered Russian nuclear forces on high alert.
Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s arms control and non-proliferation program, opened his country’s address to the pandemic-delayed conference to review the 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on Tuesday by reading Putin’s message to participants against a nuclear war. And then he repeated the same words.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his opening speech on Monday, called Putin’s warnings after the invasion of Ukraine “reckless and dangerous nuclear sabers.”
It remains to be seen what impact Putin’s new commitment will have.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mykola Tochytskyi told the high-level meeting on Monday that Putin’s open threat to the world about Russia’s ability to use nuclear weapons had been supported by ” clear calls to do so from Russian state media.”
“Think tanks and experts are widely debating what kind of nuclear weapons, tactical or strategic, Russia will use during the ongoing war against Ukraine,” he said.
“This is the background to our NPT review conference.” In defense of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, Vishnevetsky cited an expanded NATO that he said “seeks undivided military, strategic and geopolitical dominance” and forced Moscow to defend its “core security interests.”
Russia “has been subjected to a hybrid military campaign fraught with a slide towards direct armed conflict between nuclear powers,” he said.
“Furthermore, the arms control system, which has traditionally been a basic pillar of international security and stability, is currently facing a crisis that is unprecedented in recent history in terms of its scale “. Vishnevetsky did not mention Putin’s warning and action after the invasion of Ukraine, but said that given the current situation “it is more critical than ever that the nuclear powers behave with restraint and responsibility.”
He noted that in a joint statement in January, the five nuclear powers — Russia, the United States, China, Britain and France — reiterated that a nuclear war should never be fought and that it cannot be won, and emphasized “the need to avoid not only a nuclear confrontation but also any military confrontation between nuclear powers”.
“It is imperative that all signatories demonstrate in acts their commitment to these provisions,” the Russian official said.
The review conference, which ends on August 26, aims to strengthen the NPT, which is considered the cornerstone of international disarmament efforts. Its goal is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieve a nuclear-free world, and it has the broadest support of any arms control agreement, with 191 parties to the treaty.
Under the terms of the NPT, the five original nuclear powers agreed to negotiate to eliminate their arsenals one day, and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee that they could develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong, head of the Foreign Ministry’s arms control department, whose country has close ties with Russia, told delegates on Tuesday that “the NPT is very tense and even faces the new and most serious challenges since the end of the Cold War.”
“The specter of the Cold War mentality is here to stay,” he said, noting the deterioration of the global strategic security environment, the “outdated approach to security based on military alliances” and the risk growing from an arms race and conflicts.
Fu called for the five nuclear powers to “work together to reduce nuclear risks,” strengthen communications on strategic stability, “and hold in-depth dialogue on reducing the role of nuclear weapons in their national security doctrines and on a broad range of issues, including missile defense, outer space, cyberspace and artificial intelligence”.
Blinken, the top US diplomat, said on Monday that the US had chosen to “act with restraint” in response to Russia’s actions and avoid anything that could inadvertently raise nuclear tensions. As examples, he said the US abandoned previously scheduled intercontinental ballistic missile tests and did not raise the alert status of its nuclear forces “in response to Russia’s sabre-rattling”.
“There is no place in our world, no place in our world, for nuclear deterrence based on coercion, intimidation or blackmail,” Blinken said. “We must stand together to reject this.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm at Monday’s opening over the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East and other tensions, warning that “humanity is only a misunderstanding, a miscalculation of nuclear annihilation.”
Blinken said the US, UK and France have published a set of principles and best practices that all NPT nuclear-weapon states should adhere to, “including that every effort should be made to ensure that the nuclear weapons are not used again.”