The United Nations Secretary-General on Monday warned that humanity was “just a misunderstanding, a miscalculation that will lead to nuclear annihilation”, citing the war in Ukraine among the conflicts. has pushed the risk to a level not seen since the height of the Cold War.
“All of this comes at a time when the risk of weapons proliferation is growing and the railings preventing escalation are waning,” said official António Guterres. “And as crises – with a nuclear theme – are erupting from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Mr. Guterres was speaking at the opening session of a conference at United Nations headquarters in New York on upholding and securing the 50-year-old Global Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons, aim for ultimate disarmament.
The conference took place after a two-year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic and was attended by high-ranking representatives from member countries, including the prime minister of Japan, the US secretary of state, and dozens of foreign ministers and delegations. .
The threat of a nuclear confrontation or a nuclear accident arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a recurring theme in many speeches of the day.
Our Report on the Russo-Ukrainian War
President Vladimir V. Putin and other Russians have repeatedly suggested that a nuclear war could break out if NATO intervened in the war in Ukraine. His force use the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as a foundation held in the spring and now turn a nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, into a battle fortress.
In his remarks before the session, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the treaty has made the world safer but is increasingly tense. Blinken mentioned Russia, Iran and North Korea as examples of nuclear-related concerns.
Blinken condemned Russia for participating in a “reckless, dangerous launch of a nuclear sword”, and said North Korea was preparing to conduct a seventh nuclear test. He said Iran has yet to agree to return to its commitments under the nuclear deal with world powers and is “still on the path of nuclear escalation”.
Russia and Iran are among 191 signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, a position the West has questioned, and that has spurred efforts to find a deal with Iran to scrap its nuclear ambitions. people of this country.
Blinken also criticized Russia for using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as site of attacks on Ukrainian forcessaid the Ukrainians could not return fire because of fears they might attack a nuclear reactor or stored radioactive waste.
“That takes the concept of having a human shield to a whole different and horrifying level,” Mr. Blinken said.
The conference, which normally meets every five years, will consider the treaty’s three priorities: preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, promoting and supporting nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and toward disarmament. global nuclear gas. But there is little concrete outcome to be expected, given the current division between the world’s powers.
Mr. Putin, who put his nuclear forces in “ready to fight special“In the early days of the invasion in February, also sent a message to the nuclear nonproliferation conference.
“We believe there can be no winner in a nuclear war and it should never be waged,” Putin wrote, according to Tass, the Russian news agency. “We advocate equal and indivisible security for all members of the international community.”
