UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers remarks ahead of the 2022 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the UN General Assembly on August 1. Yuki IWAMURA/The Associated Press
The head of the United Nations warned the world on Monday that “humanity is only one misunderstanding, one miscalculation from nuclear annihilation.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the dire warning at the opening of a long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a world without nuclear weapons. He cited in particular the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons for the conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, two regions “that are headed for disaster.”
Mr Guterres told scores of ministers, officials and diplomats attending the month-long review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that the meeting was being held “at a critical moment 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 work out measures that will help avoid certain disaster and put humanity on a new path towards a world without nuclear weapons,” the secretary-general said.
But Mr 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. “
Mr. Guterres urged conference participants to take several actions: Urgently strengthen and reaffirm the “77-year norm against the use of nuclear weapons,” work relentlessly 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.”
In force since 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, known as the NPT, has the widest adherence of all arms control agreements, 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 , that they will be 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. Israel, which is not a signatory, is believed to have a nuclear arsenal, but has neither confirmed nor denied it. Nevertheless, the treaty is believed to limit the number of nuclear newcomers (US President John F. Kennedy once predicted up to 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international disarmament cooperation.
The meeting, which ends on August 26, aims to generate consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantive – if any – agreement.
Still, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji and more than a dozen foreign ministers of nations are among those expected to attend from at least 116 countries, according to a UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity , as he was not authorized to speak publicly before the conference.
Other speakers at Monday’s opening included UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock.
The five-year review of the NPT was supposed to take place in 2020, when the world was already facing many crises, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes amid heightened fears of a nuclear confrontation, fueled by comments from Russia following its February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin then warned that any attempt to intervene would lead to “consequences the likes of which you have never seen” and stressed that his country was “one of the most powerful nuclear powers”. Days later, Mr. Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be put on high alert.
Patricia Lewis, former director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Studies, 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 to use nuclear weapons have shocked the international community.” .
Russia is not only a signatory to the NPT, but also a depositary for ratifying the treaty, and in January joined the four other nuclear powers in echoing former US President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement that “nuclear war can never be won and we never have to fight,” she told The Associated Press.
Ms Lewis said the parties involved in the review conference would have to make a difficult decision.
To support the treaty and what it stands for, “governments will have to address Russia’s behavior and threats,” she said. “On the other hand, it risks dividing the members of the treaty – 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 no doubt strongly object to being mentioned in statements and any outcome documents,” Ms Lewis said.
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