He told a conference that we are only “one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” “We have been extremely fortunate so far,” he said at the opening 10th review conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an international treaty that came into force in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. “But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions that culminate in nuclear conflict.” “Today, humanity is only a misunderstanding, a miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” The UN Secretary-General continued to call on nations to “put humanity on a new path towards a world without nuclear weapons”. Guterres said the conference held at UN headquarters in New York was “an opportunity to strengthen” the treaty and “make it fit for the troubled world around us”, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and tensions in the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East. . “The elimination of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee that they will never be used” The meeting, which has been postponed several times since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will last until August 26. In January, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – pledged to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons. At the last review conference in 2015, the parties were unable to reach agreement on substantive issues.
