Russia has blocked the adoption of a joint UN declaration on nuclear weapons on Friday. Moscow called parts of the text “highly political”.
The 191 signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have met at UN headquarters in New York since August 1.
The purpose of this new declaration is to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. There is also a need for complete disarmament and cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
An agreement requires the unanimous agreement of 191 signatories. But after a month of negotiations, “the conference could not reach an agreement”. Russia, in particular, was irritated.
The Russian envoy, Igor Vishnevetsky, spoke of the lack of “balance” in the more than thirty-page draft of the final text. The representative did not provide details, but the text did contain four references to the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia.
The NPT, which came into effect in 1970, has so far been adopted by 191 countries and is the basis for nuclear disarmament worldwide. Critics, however, argue that the five official nuclear powers – the United States, China, Britain, France and Russia – are subject to different rules than signatories that do not possess nuclear weapons.
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