The head of the United Nations warned the world on Monday that “humanity is only a misunderstanding, a miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued the dire warning at the start of a long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a nuclear-free world. He specifically cited the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons in conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, two regions that are “heading for disaster.” Guterres told scores of ministers, officials and diplomats attending the month-long conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that the meeting was taking place “at a critical juncture for our collective peace and security” and “at a period of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.” The conference is “an opportunity to take steps that will help avert certain catastrophes and set humanity on a new path toward a world without nuclear weapons,” the secretary-general said. But Guterres warned that “geopolitical weapons are reaching new highs”, nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons are in arsenals around the world and countries seeking “false security” are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on “doomsday weapons”. “All this at a time when proliferation risks are rising and safeguards against escalation are weakening,” he said, “And when crises — with a nuclear background — flare up from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to the invasion of Russia in Ukraine.” Guterres called on conference participants to take several actions: urgently strengthen and reaffirm “the 77-year-old rule against the use of nuclear weapons,” work relentlessly to eliminate nuclear weapons with new commitments to reduce arsenals, address “the simmering tensions in the Middle East and Asia’ and promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology. “Future generations rely on your commitment to step back from the abyss,” he pleaded with ministers and diplomats. “This is our moment to meet this fundamental test and lift the cloud of nuclear annihilation once and for all.” In force since 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, known as the NPT, has the widest adherence of any other arms control agreement, with some 191 countries being members. Under its provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain, and France — agreed to negotiate the elimination of their arsenals someday, and the nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for ensuring the possibility of developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. India and Pakistan, which did not join the NPT, continued to take the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Israel, which is not a signatory, is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but has neither confirmed nor denied this. Nevertheless, the treaty was credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (US President John F. Kennedy once predicted up to 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament. The meeting, which ends on August 26, aims to build consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantive — if any — agreement. But Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji and more than a dozen foreign ministers are among those attending from at least 116 countries, according to a UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not authorization to speak publicly before the conference. Other speakers at Monday’s opening include UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The five-year review of the NPT was supposed to take place in 2020, when the world was already facing many crises, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes at a time of heightened fears of nuclear conflict, fueled by Russia’s comments following its February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the time that any attempt to intervene would lead to “unseen consequences” and stressed that his country was “one of the most powerful nuclear powers”. Days later, Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert. Patricia Lewis, former director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, who is now in charge of international security programs at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London, said that “President Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons have shaken the international community”. Russia is not only a signatory to the NPT, but also a depositary for treaty ratifications, and in January joined the other four nuclear powers in reiterating the statement by former US President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that “a nuclear war will not it can never be won and you should never fight,” he told The Associated Press. Lewis said the countries participating in the review conference will have a difficult decision to make. To support the treaty and what it stands for, “governments will have to address Russia’s behavior and threats,” he said. “On the other hand, to do so risks dividing the treaty’s members — some of whom have been persuaded by Russian propaganda, or at least not as concerned as, for example, NATO reports.” And “Russia will undoubtedly strongly object to being named in statements and in any outcome documents,” Lewis said.