United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm over the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East, and other tensions, warning that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”
The warning came Monday as a pandemic-delayed conference opened to review the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
The threat of nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the UN nuclear chief and many other opening speakers.
Russia, which came under criticism from some speakers, didn’t give its address in its scheduled slot Monday but was expected to speak Tuesday. China’s representative was scheduled to speak Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, Iran “has either been unwilling or unable” to accept a deal to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in its nuclear program and Russia is “engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear sabre-rattling” in Ukraine.
He cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning after the country’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen,” emphasizing that his country is “one of the most potent nuclear powers.”
Russia’s actions in Ukraine criticized
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said divisions in the world since the last review conference in 2015, which ended without a consensus document, have become greater, noting that Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war has contributed “to worldwide concern that yet another catastrophe by nuclear weapon use is a real possibility.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Moscow’s “reckless nuclear rhetoric” since its invasion of its smaller neighbour “is putting at risk everything the NPT has achieved in five decades.”
Putin appeared to roll back on his nuclear warning in a message of greetings to NPT participants posted on his website Monday.
“We believe that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the world…
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