OUR Russia averted friday adoption of a joint declaration after a four-week review at the UN of a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT), embellishing it with “political” terms.

The 191 signatories of 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 since August 1 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

But despite almost a month of negotiations and despite the fact that the final meeting was extended by several hours on Friday, “to my deep regret, this conference cannot reach a consensus” and “reach an agreement,” said its chairman Gustavo Slaviven. after Russian intervention.

Igor Vishnevetsky, the Russian delegate, essentially denounced the lack of “balance” in the final 30+ page draft text. “Our delegation objects (…) to certain points that are shamelessly political in nature,” he stressed, repeating several times that Moscow was not the only country that had objections to the text at all.

Zaporozhye

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, Russia specifically objected to paragraphs of text that referred to a nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye, Ukrainewhich has been under Russian occupation since March.

The latest text on the table, obtained by AFP, expresses “great concern” about the military actions around Ukrainian nuclear plants, especially in Zaporozhye, and the “loss of control” from the Ukrainian authorities, which has a “significant impact on security.”

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

There have been other sensitive issues for some states discussed over the past four weeks, including Iran’s nuclear power program or North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing. Even at the previous conference to review the agreement, in 2015, the parties failed to agree on fundamental issues.

In any case, “what is really problematic, with or without this text, is that nothing is being done at the moment to reduce the level of the nuclear threat,” Beatrice Finn, head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. (I CAN). He said the draft text was “very weak” and “unrealistic”, highlighting the lack of “tangible disarmament commitments” within a specific timeframe.

“The Bell” Guterres

Opening the conference UN Secretary General António Guterres, calculated that the “danger” of nuclear weapons had reached this 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 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France) are subject to different conditions than the participating countries, but not possessing nuclear arsenals.

In addition, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, which have not signed the agreement, have nuclear weapons, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) notes.

According to the Federation, there will be approximately 12,700 nuclear weapons in the world in 2022. At the height of the Cold War, in 1986, there were an estimated 70,300 nuclear weapons.

Source: AFP, DPA, APE-MPE.