The United Nations General Assembly began negotiations Monday on a legally binding global prohibition on nuclear weapons. The official nuclear-weapon states were among roughly 40 nations to boycott the conference on its first day.
“As a mom, as a daughter, there is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Monday at a press conference. “But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone that believes that North Korea would agree to a ban on nuclear weapons?”
In October, 123 U.N. member states voted to begin negotiations on the nuclear weapons ban; 38 governments voted in opposition, including nuclear-armed states France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; final nuclear power China joined 15 other U.N. members in abstaining.
Other nations that have chosen not to support the ban treaty negotiations include Japan, South Korea, and Germany. “You are going to see almost 40 countries that are not in the General Assembly today,” Haley said.
Matthew Rycroft, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the U.N., said at the press conference that while the U.K. is “completely committed” to the long-term goal of a world without nuclear weapons, “we do not believe that those negotiations will lead to effective progress on global nuclear disarmament.”
The U.N. will hold its negotiations this week and from June 15 to July 7. The conference will then submit a report to the General Assembly’s 72nd session in September. The adopted resolution says this report will be used to “assess the progress made in the negotiations and decide the way forward.”
The U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs said in a press release that “there has been growing frustration in recent years over the declining pace of reductions, continued reliance on nuclear weapons in security doctrines and continuing programmes to modernize and improve nuclear weapons.”
The ban treaty, it said, would be a “partial step towards nuclear disarmament because it would not include measures for elimination – matters that would be left for future negotiations.” It would instead contribute to “the progressive stigmatization of nuclear weapons,” it said.
