UN Secretary General: The World Has Been Under the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons for Too Long

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (Source: PBB)

JAKARTA - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that the nuclear race poses the threat of annihilation, as nuclear-armed countries modernize their arsenals to become faster, more accurate, and stealthy.

Speaking on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, commemorated by the UN General Assembly since 2013, Secretary-General Guterres said the world must change course as countries seek to develop or expand nuclear capabilities.

"Any use of nuclear weapons – anytime, anywhere, and in any context – would result in an enormous humanitarian disaster," he said, as reported by The National News, September 27.

"The 'nuclear sword' is being raised again. This is madness," he said.

The UN Secretary-General further said that the number of nuclear weapons on earth could increase for the first time in decades, warning that the shadow of 'annihilation' was looming over the world.

In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that the world's nuclear powers, especially China, increased their weapons investments for the third consecutive year in 2022.

Although the total number of nuclear warheads owned by Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States has fallen by around 1.6 percent to 12,512 compared to the previous year, SIPRI said the downward trend was at an all-time high. peak.

On the same occasion, Secretary General Guterres also called for the implementation of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1996, but is still not in force because several main countries have not joined it.

This agreement has 196 member countries. Of these, 186 people have signed it and 178 people have ratified it. The pact is not yet in force because it still requires ratification by eight countries – the US, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, India, and Pakistan – that have nuclear power plants or research reactors.

The UN says frustration is growing among member states over the slow pace of nuclear disarmament. Concerns are growing about the enormous humanitarian impact of the use of a single nuclear weapon, let alone a regional or global nuclear conflict.

Secretary General Guterres said the framework for stopping nuclear proliferation and disarmament efforts had been eroded.

To return to the path of nuclear arms reduction, he called on countries to commit to never using atomic bombs "under any circumstances."

"The world has been under the shadow of nuclear weapons for too long. Let's step back from the brink of disaster," he said.