UN talks aimed at banning nuclear weapons began on Monday, but the US, Russia, China and other nuclear-armed nations are sitting out a discussion they see as impractical.
Supporters of the potential pact say it is time to push harder toward eliminating atomic weapons than nations have been doing through the nearly 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
With international tensions rising while public awareness of the nuclear threat has waned, “the need for progress on nuclear disarmament has rarely been as urgent as it is today,” UN Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Kim Won-soo said as the talks opened.
Photo: AP
More than 100 countries voted for a UN General Assembly resolution last year to start discussions, with nations including Austria, Brazil and Ireland leading the effort.
However, the US and several other nuclear powers say a ban will not work and the world should instead stick with a more gradual approach.
“As a mom, as a daughter, there is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said as she and colleagues from Britain, France and about 20 other nations, not all of them nuclear states, gathered on Monday outside the General Assembly Hall in New York to show opposition to the talks starting inside.
Haley argued that a treaty would end up disarming nations “trying to keep peace and safety,” while “bad actors” would not sign on or comply.
“North Korea would be the one cheering, and all of us and the people we represent would be the ones at risk,” she said.
North Korea carried out two nuclear tests last year and has continued to test ballistic missiles as recently as this month, in violation of UN resolutions. North Korea has said its nuclear efforts are meant as a deterrent against what it sees as US hostility.
North Korea’s UN Mission did not immediately respond to an inquiry on Monday about the disarmament talks.
Opponents of the ban plan say gradual disarmament has made a difference. The US has reduced its nuclear arsenal by 85 percent under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Haley said; Britain has cut its nuclear forces by more than 50 percent since the height of the Cold War, according to Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.
Still, “our countries continue to rely on nuclear deterrence for security and stability,” French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek said.
Chinese and Russian representatives did not join the boycotters’ news conference, but the two countries had said previously that they would not participate in the talks.
Japan, which during World War II experienced the only atomic bomb strikes in history, did take part in opening remarks on Monday.
Saying that North Korea’s actions challenge the non-proliferation approach, Japanese representative Nobushige Takamizawa said it was “crucial to have a realistic perspective as to how nuclear disarmament measures can contribute effectively to addressing actual security concerns.”
The negotiations aim to create “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination.”
Backers hope a document will be inked by July.
Any treaty would bind only nations that ratified it, but despite the opposition from key nuclear players, supporters of the proposed ban feel it could help create a new international norm of rejecting atomic arms.
“It’s very difficult to eliminate a weapon that you haven’t prohibited first,” said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an advocacy group.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese