UN official hopes confabs revive nuclear disarmament momentum

A senior U.N. disarmament official hopes that upcoming international conferences will help rekindle a desire among major countries to abandon nuclear weapons, despite ongoing uncertainty amid conflicts such as Ukraine conflict.

Izumi Nakamitsu, undersecretary general for disarmament affairs, said in a recent interview that she will strive to make the two gatherings related to U.N. treaties — one banning nuclear weapons and another on non-proliferation — successful in leading nuclear-armed countries to affirm such weapons should not be used, as a first step toward dismantling their arsenals.

“The overall security environment is not only difficult, but getting worse,” Nakamitsu said, referring to growing tensions among nuclear powers such as the United States, China and Russia.

The senior U.N. official from Japan spoke with Kyodo News ahead of the third meeting of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in early March at the world body’s headquarters in New York.

“I hope that many countries take advantage of this opportunity,” she said.The United Nations will also host a preparatory session in April and May for next year’s review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT.

The NPT recognizes Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States as the so-called nuclear weapons states and obligates them to pursue nuclear disarmament.

Well India too is a major nuclear power and much more than Britain and UK.and without it there can be NO TALKS on Nuclear disarmament …plain and simple fact.

In January 2022, the five countries said in a first-of-its-kind joint statement that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought…..this is the major problem.

These countries wish to retain their nuclear weapons and want India to discard them. Well they can do nothing about Indian nuclear weapons till they themselves abandon them.

But no nations that possess nuclear weapons have signed on to the treaty banning the weapons altogether, which took effect in 2021.

Nakamitsu said the two treaty meetings complement one another, noting that every country to have joined the nuclear ban treaty is also an NPT member.

The last two NPT review conferences, held in 2015 and 2022, respectively, ended without the issuing of an outcome document, due mainly to differences between the nuclear and non-nuclear states.

If the conference fails a third time to adopt such a document, Nakamitsu warned, cynicism about the world’s main disarmament regime could increase among countries, harming the outlook for global security.