Opinion | Amid Ukraine war, gap between nuclear weapon haves and have-nots needs urgent attention

The NPT Review Conference should address concerns over the failure of nuclear weapon states to make progress on disarmament

A new treaty, which aims at the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, adds to the pressure on NPT signatories to act more decisively in the right direction

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Published: 1:30pm, 1 Aug 2022

The international conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) could be one of the most important yet most bitterly contested global meetings in recent years.

The deliberations of the nearly month-long 10th NPT Review Conference starting today in New York will affect how nuclear weapons will be managed in the decades ahead. The choice is between the world moving towards some degree of consensual nuclear restraint, or lurching into a discordant and brittle contest over these weapons of mass destruction.

The war in Ukraine, and Moscow’s signal that it could consider using the dreaded nuclear option if it felt its core national interests were threatened, has renewed anxiety over the possible use of nuclear weapons. North Korea recently issued a nuclear threat, accusing the US of raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Adding to global unease is the United States’ posture over Taiwan, prompting China to warn that it should not “play with fire”.

The global political leadership’s inability to arrive at any meaningful collective response to issues from international trade conflict and climate change to the Covid-19 crisis suggests the nuclear issue will remain intractable, and that the image of a slow-motion train crash may not be misplaced.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty came into being in 1970. Then, the US and Soviet Union, as Cold War superpowers which were the first to acquire nuclear weapons, arrived at a strategic determination that the nuclear club should remain exclusive and that no other nations ought to acquire this capability.

Opinion | Amid Ukraine war, gap between nuclear weapon haves and have-nots needs urgent attention

The NPT Review Conference should address concerns over the failure of nuclear weapon states to make progress on disarmament A new treaty, which aims at the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, adds to the pressure on NPT signatories to act more decisively in the right direction

The NPT Review Conference should address concerns over the failure of nuclear weapon states to make progress on disarmament

A new treaty, which aims at the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, adds to the pressure on NPT signatories to act more decisively in the right direction