Russia blocked the adoption of a text on nuclear disarmament at the UN

Russia on Friday blocked the adoption of a joint declaration after four weeks of UN review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), labeling its “political” terms.

The 191 countries that have signed the NPT, a 1970 treaty aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, promoting complete disarmament and cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, have been meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York since 1 August.

But despite negotiations going on for nearly a month and despite the final meeting being extended for several hours on Friday, “to my deep regret, this conference is not able to reach a consensus” and “achieve an agreement”, its president said. , Gustavo Slauviven, after the intervention of Russia.

Igor Vishnevetsky, the Russian delegate, essentially denounced the lack of “balance” in the 30-plus page final draft text.

“Our delegation objects (…) to certain paragraphs that are shamelessly political,” he stressed, repeating several times that Moscow was not the only country that generally had objections to the text.

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, Russia specifically objected to the paragraphs of the text that related to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, which has been under the occupation of Russian troops since March.

The last text on the table, obtained by AFP, expressed “great concern” about military activities around Ukrainian nuclear plants, especially in Zaporizhia, and the “loss of control” by Ukrainian authorities, which has ” significant impact on safety”.

A source close to the Russian delegation confirmed that, according to it, some countries wanted to settle political accounts with Russia after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

There were other sensitive issues for some states in the debate over the past four weeks, involving Iran’s nuclear energy program, or North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.

Not even at the previous conference to review the agreement, in 2015, did the parties manage to agree on fundamental issues.

In any case, “what is really problematic, with this text or without any text, is that nothing is being done to reduce the level of the nuclear threat at the moment,” Beatrice Finn, the head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

The draft text was “very weak” and “unrealistic”, he said, stressing the absence of “tangible disarmament commitments” on a specific timetable.

Opening the conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres estimated that the “danger” due to nuclear weapons had reached such a level “since the height of the cold war”.

“Today, humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation from nuclear annihilation,” he warned.

Critics of the NPT point out that the five official nuclear powers (US, Russia, China, Britain and France) are subject to different conditions than the countries that are parties but do not possess nuclear arsenals.

In addition, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea also possess nuclear weapons, without having signed the agreement, notes the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Globally, there are some 12,700 nuclear weapons in 2022, according to the Federation. At the height of the cold war, in 1986, nuclear weapons were estimated to have reached 70,300.

Source: AMPE