The five-member of UN Security Council which include Russia, the U.S, China, the UK and France come today and declared that there should never be the use of nuclear weapons unless it was for defensive purposes and they also pledged to prevent further development of the weapons in the world in a move many analysts say is targeting Iran after talks on Iran nuclear deal stalled.
For the first time, the leaders of China, Russia, the U.S, the UK and France issued a statement about avoiding an arms race and not targeting each other or any other state and also said they believed strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented.
Secretary-General Guterres appreciated the recognition of the need to comply with the bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control agreements and commitments.
He also highlighted the state’s obligations under the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons(NPT) related to nuclear disarmament.
Because of the covid-19 pandemic, an NPT review that was due to begin on Tuesday has been postponed until August according to the statement from the P5.
Mr Guterres says he was encouraged by the commitment to pursue measures to prevent nuclear war, consistent with his long-standing call for dialogue and cooperation. He looks forward to more details about future initiatives he added.
Mr Guterres took this opportunity to remind everybody that the only way to eliminate all nuclear risks is to eliminate all nuclear weapons, the move which is seen as impossible due to the level of mistrust among P5 members.
The world has been under threat of nuclear weapons for some time and the nearly went to during the Cuba missile crisis during the cold war between the U.S and Soviet Union.
The world had more than 70,000 nuclear warheads at the height of the cold war in the late 1980s, it was reduced in negotiations between the U.S and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991and 3,750 active nuclear warheads remained in 2009 although the total number of nuclear weapons today in the world is more than 13,000.
This deal reached among world powers raises many questions but with little answers, although what is clear is the risk of having nuclear war had increased as disputes and tensions among nuclear powers of U.S, Russia, China, India and Pakistan continued to increase hence a need to step back.
But some analysts say the balance of power was shifting as more non-western countries developed and modernized nuclear weapons, so there was a need by U.S, France and UK to do something about it.
Whether nuclear or not, the world balance of power has already shifted from the west moving east and there is nothing western countries can do about it.
Although the P5 agreed not to use nuclear weapons unless it’s for defensive purposes, it doesn’t entirely prevent a nuclear war from happening which means the world remains at risk of destruction.
