Russia blocks UN nuclear disarmament agreement | Abroad

Russia on Friday (local time) prevented the approval of a joint statement at the end of the UN review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Moscow called parts of the text “blatantly political.”

The 191 signatories to the NPT, which aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, have been meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York since August 1.

Some countries and NGOs hoped to set binding deadlines for phasing out nuclear weapons in the world. This required unanimous agreement of the 191 signatories. But despite a month of negotiations and a final session postponed by several hours on Friday, “the conference is unable to reach an agreement,” the conference president, Argentine Gustavo Zlauvinen, said after Russia intervened.

Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine

For example, the Russian envoy, Igor Vishnevetsky, denounced a lack of “balance” in the draft final text of more than 30 pages. The representative did not provide details, but the text did contain four references to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Sources close to the negotiations say Moscow was particularly opposed to those paragraphs.

“Our delegation strongly objects to certain paragraphs that are blatantly political,” he said. According to Vishnevetsky, Russia would not be the only country to object to the text. After his statement, representatives from dozens of other participating countries expressed disappointment at the failure of the conference.

Basis for Nuclear Disarmament

The NPT, which came into force in 1970, has so far been ratified by 191 countries worldwide and forms the basis for nuclear disarmament worldwide. Critics argue, however, that the five official nuclear powers, the US, China, Great Britain, France and Russia, have different rules than the signatories without nuclear weapons.

The four other suspected nuclear powers India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have not joined or have withdrawn from the treaty. According to the American think tank Federation of American Scientists (FAS), there were about 12,700 nuclear warheads around the world at the end of 2022. That is only a fraction of the estimated 70,300 weapons at the height of nuclear armament during the Cold War in 1986.

Yet United Nations chief António Guterres warned of the growing risk of nuclear destruction from the numerous crises and conflicts worldwide. The world is in a “period of nuclear danger unprecedented since the height of the Cold War,” Guterres said at the start of the UN conference.

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