UN warns of growing nuclear weapons threat
GENEVA A top United Nations official yesterday denounced growing rhetoric claiming nuclear arms are necessary and warned that the risk of such weapons being used was on the rise.
"The threat of the use, intentional or otherwise, of nuclear weapons is growing," the UN representative for disarmament affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told a preliminary review meeting of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The US, which holds one of the world's largest nuclear arsenals, also warned the conference that the prospects for progress on disarmament was currently "bleak".
The NPT, introduced at the height of the Cold War, seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons while putting the onus on nuclear states to reduce their stockpiles.
At the opening of the meeting, Ms Nakamitsu warned that "the world today faces similar challenges to the context that gave birth to the NPT".
The NPT, which counts 191 state parties, faces a comprehensive review every five years, with preparatory committees each year in between.
The next full review of the treaty is scheduled for 2020.
This year's meeting comes after North Korea, which pulled out of the treaty 15 years ago, declared a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests and said it would dismantle its nuclear test site.
Ms Nakamitsu hailed the announcement, voicing hope that the move "will contribute to building trust and to sustaining an atmosphere for sincere dialogue and negotiations" .
Other speakers at the opening of the meeting, including the European Union representative, stressed the need to "keep pressure" on North Korea.
And Mr Christopher Ford, the US assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, insisted that Pyongyang had "yet to return to compliance" of the NPT.
North Korea's nuclear programme was one reason why "the non-proliferation regime today faces great threats", he said, also pointing to Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Ford said the NPT had made great strides to avoid proliferation and ward off the use of nuclear weapons, but warned that "deteriorating security conditions have made near-term prospects for further progress on disarmament bleak".
Ms Nakamitsu also cautioned that the overall "geopolitical environment is deteriorating".
"Some of the most important instruments and agreements that comprise our collective security framework are being eroded. Rhetoric about the necessity and utility of nuclear weapons is on the rise," she said, stressing "modernisation programmes by nuclear-weapon states are leading to what many see as a new, qualitative arms race".
Five of the world's nine nuclear-armed states - Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US - are parties to the NPT.
India and Pakistan, as well as Israel, which has never acknowledged it has nuclear weapons, have never signed the treaty.
Despite their treaty obligations, observers said all nuclear-armed NPT members are engaged in modernising their arsenals and making nuclear weapons a more central part of their defence strategies.
President Donald Trump's administration, for instance, has recently decided to upgrade the US nuclear weapons arsenal and to complement massive "strategic" bombs with smaller "tactical" weapons.
- AFP
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