United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the rattling of nuclear sabers and called for the end of nuclear blackmail and recommitment to peace. Guterres was speaking at an event to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, held as the annual debate in the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. According to the UN Chief, Nuclear weapons are the most destructive power ever created that offers no security just carnage and chaos. He noted that the elimination of Nucs would be the greatest gift we could bestow on future generations. The UN chief recalled that the Cold War had brought humanity within minutes of annihilation, while decades after it ended, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world once again hears the rattling of nuclear sabres. Guterres was of the view that any use of a nuclear weapon would incite a humanitarian Armageddon. The UN Secretary-General also spoke of his disappointment after countries failed to reach a consensus at a conference last month to review the landmark Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the only binding commitment to the goal of disarmament by States which officially stockpile nuclear weapons.
Three decades after the cold war, the world is entering another global wargame that is clearly defining the world into two blocs. The United States and the European nations, Canada, and the Oceania nations, along with their few South and East Asian allies are consolidating their ranks against Russia and China, while North Korea is likely to side with its Asian neighbors against its staunch rival in this grand finale.
The world has recently marked the annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons but nuclear blackmailing and military intimidation are on the surge in the contemporary world. The nations owing discriminatory powers at the United Nations are blatantly using such coercion tactics because they have no fear of any possible appraisal or censure by the global forum. The recent remarks of the UN Secretary-General come after Russian President Vladimir Putin made a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine last week, though the UN Chief did not specifically name Russia or Putin during his speech on the occasion.
Currently, the war in Ukraine along with the US-China rivalry over Taiwan has cast serious risks for the use of nuclear weapons by the belligerent nations because no nuclear power will easily accept its defeat and will likely use deadly weapons as last resort to deprive it the enemy of enjoying a sense of victory against it. Unfortunately, the recently held review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) ended without any consensus document after four-week long deliberation among the members of the accord because Russia objected to the text about its control over Ukrainian nuclear facilities. In fact, the world faces multiple threats to its peace because the global political agendas of major powers are sharply sliding the world into chaos, and uncertainty, while a fragile United Nations was unable to condemn the aggressive attitudes and hegemonic designs of powerful nations thus the world purely testifies the quote might makes right.
Presently, the UN Chief is proactively sensitizing the world about the nuclear risks and urging the countries to use every avenue of dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation to ease tensions, reduce risk and eliminate the nuclear threat. Guterres underscored the need for a new vision for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, which he has particularly highlighted in his newly perceived Agenda for Peace formula. Although, Guterres timely echoes the hazards to world peace but the voice of the powerless never strikes the ears of the influential who are used to preemptive war instead of preemptive dialogue.
