Finance
Russia has obstructed the joint final declaration of the tenth United Nations conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which concluded in New York.
“To my deep regret, this conference was not able to reach consensus,” said the meeting’s chairman, Gustavo Zlauvinen, after the meeting ended on Friday.
According to the dpa news agency, some states and non-governmental organizations hoped to establish binding deadlines for the global dismantling of nuclear weapons during the four-week conference.
The Russian delegate stated that his country disagreed with five sections of the final draft, but did not provide further details, and claimed that other countries agreed with Russia.
Following the Russian statement, however, delegates from dozens of countries said they agreed with it and expressed disappointment that no agreement could be reached.
Another Russian representative, on the other hand, complained that other participants had used the conference to settle scores with Russia over the Ukraine war rather than working towards nuclear disarmament.
On August 1, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference convened in New York. The treaty, which entered into force in 1970, has been ratified by 191 countries around the world. Its ultimate goal is nuclear disarmament.
However, critics argue that the five official nuclear powers – the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia – are subject to different rules than the signatories who do not possess nuclear weapons.
According to FAS, there will be approximately 12,700 nuclear warheads in the world by 2022. That is only a fraction of the 70,300 weapons estimated at the height of the Cold War in 1986.
Source:OCN
