The United Nations chief warned the world Monday that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” citing the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East, and many other factors.
At the UN on Monday, Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning at the opening of a long-delayed meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
Guterres told the officials gathered in the General Assembly Hall that the month-long review conference is taking place “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”.
The meeting is an opportunity to hammer out the measures that will help avoid certain disasters, and to put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons, he said.
However, Guterres warned that geopolitical weapons are reaching new highs as almost 13,000 nuclear arms are in arsenals around the world and countries are seeking false security by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons.
“We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict,” the UN chief said.
The danger of increasing nuclear threats and a nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the UN nuclear chief, and many other opening speakers at the meeting to review progress and agree on future steps to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, known as the NPT.
At the UN on Monday, Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning at the opening of a long-delayed meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
Guterres told the officials gathered in the General Assembly Hall that the month-long review conference is taking place “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”.
The meeting is an opportunity to hammer out the measures that will help avoid certain disasters, and to put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons, he said.
However, Guterres warned that geopolitical weapons are reaching new highs as almost 13,000 nuclear arms are in arsenals around the world and countries are seeking false security by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons.
“We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict,” the UN chief said.
The danger of increasing nuclear threats and a nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the UN nuclear chief, and many other opening speakers at the meeting to review progress and agree on future steps to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, known as the NPT.
