Rabat – Speaking at the 10th review conference for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that humanity is “one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”
Citing Russia’s war with Ukraine, as well as tensions in the Korean peninsula and the Middle East, the top UN official said that the nuclear danger currently faced by the world has not been seen “since the height of the cold war.”
Guterres added, “We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict.”
He further called on nations to “put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons,” and to strengthen the treaty and make it fit for the “worrying world” around us.
“Almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world,” the UN chief said. “All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening.”
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The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty came into force in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The treaty was signed by most countries in the world, with only India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Sudan not joining. North Korea withdrew in 2003.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China – renewed their commitment to upholding the treaty earlier this year, but France, the UK, and the US called out Russia on reneging its commitments after its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia insisted it is committed to the treaty, with President Vladimir Putin saying there would be “no winners” in the event of a nuclear war.
The US also took aim at North Korea and Iran, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken claiming the two countries are still escalating their nuclear programs.
