The US, Russia, China, France and the UK pledge to avoid nuclear war

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, France, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia, underscored on Monday their joint commitment to avoid a nuclear war and the expansion of this type of weaponry.

In a declaration signed by their heads of state and government, they highlight their willingness to “work with all states to implement a security environment that allows for greater progress in disarmament matters. “

Agreement with Iran

The statement was published the same day they resumed in One multilateral negotiations to save the nuclear deal with Iran, which should limit the atomic activities of that Islamic Republic.

Those five nuclear powers asserted that a nuclear war “can never be won and must never be fought.”

“Given the far-reaching consequences that the use of nuclear weapons would have, we also maintain that these, as long as they exist, should serve defensive, deterrent and war prevention purposes. We firmly believe in the need to prevent the continuation of the war. dissemination of those weapons, “they said.

That statement, issued in anticipation of the tenth conference of the parties charged with reviewing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, scheduled for this year, underscored their determination to respect the obligations established by that pact.

Specifically, the one established in Article VI, focused on the “commitment to continue negotiations in good faith on effective measures related to the cessation of the nuclear arms race in the near future and nuclear disarmament.”

Each of these five states, according to the text, assured that it plans to maintain and strengthen its national measures aimed at preventing the unauthorized or unintentional use of nuclear weapons.

They also pointed out that they will continue to seek “bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoid military confrontations, reinforce stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and trust, and avoid an arms race that would benefit no one.”

The ultimate goal, according to the note, is “a world free of nuclear weapons” without diminishing security for all.

Guterres Notice

Last December, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, sounded the alarm about the danger of a conflict of this nature. “Given the storage of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in arsenals around the world, how long will our luck last?” He asked.

“Nuclear destruction is a sword of Damocles: a misunderstanding or misjudgment would suffice to cause not only suffering and death on a frightening scale, but also the end of all life on Earth.”

The NPT, which entered into force in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, is made up of 191 states.

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The five signatories are the five states legally recognized as “endowed with nuclear weapons” by the treaty. Three other countries considered possessors of the atomic bomb (India, Pakistan and Israel) are not signatories. North Korea, for its part, has denounced the NPT.

These statements also coincided with the negotiations, in Vienna, aimed at revitalizing the 2015 agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, moribund since the United States withdrew from it in 2018.