UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm about the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East and other tensions, warning that “humanity is only one misunderstanding, one miscalculation from nuclear annihilation.”
The warning came Monday as a pandemic-postponed conference opened to review the 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
The threat of nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the head of the UN nuclear program and many other opening speakers.
Russia, which has come under fire from some speakers, did not deliver its address at the time scheduled for Monday, but was expected to speak on Tuesday. China’s representative was scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said as North Korea prepares to conduct its seventh nuclear test, Iran is “either unwilling or unable” to accept a deal to return to the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at curbing nuclear his program, and Russia is “engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear fumbling” in Ukraine.
He cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning after the country’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine that any attempt to intervene would lead to “consequences the likes of which you have never seen,” stressing that his country was “one of the most powerful nuclear powers “.
Russia’s actions in Ukraine have been criticized
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said divisions around the world had widened since the last review conference in 2015, which ended without a consensus document, noting that Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war had contributed to “global anxiety , that another catastrophe from the use of nuclear weapons is a real possibility.”
German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock said Moscow’s “reckless nuclear rhetoric” following its invasion of its smaller neighbor “puts at risk everything achieved by the NPT in five decades”.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mykola Tochitsky spoke at the conference. Several countries have criticized Russia for “dangerous nuking” in the Ukraine war. (Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press)
Putin appeared to withdraw his nuclear warning in a congratulatory message to NPT participants posted on his website on Monday.
“We believe that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the world community,” the Russian leader said.
Blinken also noted that Russia has seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye and is using it as a military base to fire on the Ukrainians, “knowing that they cannot and will not fire back because they could accidentally hit a nuclear reactor or highly radioactive waste in storage.” He said this takes the notion of a “human shield” to a whole different and horrifying level.
The Russian delegation to the NPT issued a statement on Monday evening strongly rejecting Blinken’s claim that Russia was using the Zaporizhia plant as a military base, saying a limited number of military personnel were there “to ensure safety and security at the power plant”.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the conflict in Ukraine was “so serious that the specter of a potential nuclear confrontation or accident has once again reared its terrifying head.”
He warned that at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant “the situation is becoming more dangerous every day” and called on all countries to help make his visit to the plant possible with a team of IAEA safety and security experts, saying that his efforts for the past two months are unsuccessful.
“Retreat from the Abyss”
Guterres said the month-long review conference was being held “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”
The conference is “an opportunity to work out the measures that will help avoid certain disasters and put humanity on a new path to a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.
But Guterres warned that “geopolitical weapons are reaching new heights”, almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are in arsenals around the world and countries seeking “false security” are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on “doomsday weapons”.
“All this at a time when proliferation risks are growing and safeguards to prevent escalation are weakening,” he said, “And when crises – with nuclear undertones – are simmering from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and many other factors around the world.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recalled at the conference his hometown of Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945. (Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press)
Guterres urged conference participants to take several actions: urgently strengthen and reaffirm the “77-year-old norm against the use of nuclear weapons,” work tirelessly to eliminate nuclear weapons with new commitments to reduce arsenals, address “simmering tensions in the Middle East and Asia’ and promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
“Future generations are counting on your commitment to step back from the abyss,” he urged ministers and diplomats. “This is our moment to face this fundamental test and lift the cloud of nuclear annihilation once and for all.”
Low expectations of agreement
Japan’s Kishida, recalling his hometown of Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945, echoed many of Guterres’ points, saying the path to a world without nuclear weapons has become more difficult, but “giving up is not an option “.
In force since 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement, with some 191 countries being 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 someday, and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee for the possibility of developing 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. Israel, which is not a signatory, is believed to have a nuclear arsenal, but has neither confirmed nor denied it.
The meeting, which ends on August 26, aims to generate consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantive – if any – agreement.
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