“Humanity is in danger of forgetting the lessons forged in the terrible fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” the UN Secretary-General said. According to him, the world is only one misunderstanding or miscalculation away from nuclear destruction.
Further disarmament seemed unfeasible even before Russia launched its attack against Ukraine. Now the reduction of the nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons worldwide is becoming even more difficult, observers say.
Agreement
The more than fifty-year-old Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), to which 191 countries have joined, forms the basis for nuclear disarmament worldwide. The NPT states that only the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom may possess nuclear weapons. The four other suspected nuclear powers India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have not joined or have withdrawn from the treaty.
The aim of the treaty is to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, disarmament and promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The results achieved are evaluated every five years. The tenth review conference was supposed to take place in 2020, but was postponed due to the corona pandemic.