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Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever

Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever  Business Mirror  Inter Press Service / Mikhail Gorbachev , 14 June 2009 “…………..Nothing fundamentally new has been achieved in the area of nuclear disarmament in the past decade-and-a-half. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the arsenals of the nuclear powers still contain thousands of weapons, and the world is facing the very real possibility of a new arms race……………………

The nuclear nonproliferation regime is in jeopardy. While the two major nuclear powers bear the greatest responsibility for this state of affairs, it was the United States that abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty), has failed to ratify the CTBT, and refused to conclude with Russia a legally binding, verifiable treaty on strategic offensive arms.

Only recently have we seen indications that the major nuclear powers understand the current state of affairs is untenable……………………………….Humanity must be wary of a new arms race. Priority is still being given to financing of military programs, and “defense” budgets far exceeding reasonable security requirements keep growing, as does the weapons trade. US military expenditures are almost as high as those of the rest of the world combined. Disregard for international law and for peaceful ways of settling disputes, for the United Nations and its Security Council, is being proclaimed as a kind of policy…………………………..

In the final analysis, the nuclear danger can only be removed by abolishing nuclear weapons. But unless we address the need to demilitarize international relations, reduce military budgets, put an end to the creation of new kinds of weapons, and prevent the weaponization of outer space, all talk about a nuclear-weapon-free world will be just empty rhetoric.

I think that after President Obama’s speech on April 5, there is a real prospect that the United States will ratify the CTBT. This would be an important step forward, particularly in combination with a new strategic arms-reduction treaty between the United States and Russia.

Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever

June 15, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized