United Nations, United States--The failure of the world's nuclear powers to make headway on disarmament is threatening to unravel a landmark treaty coming up for review next week, the UN's disarmament chief warned Wednesday.
The 190 countries that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are opening a month-long conference on Monday at the United Nations to take stock amid much gloom over the lack of progress.
"We have a stalling in the path to a nuclear-free world," said Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs.
"The nuclear-weapons states are not living up to their side of the bargain," Kane told a meeting organized by the International Peace Institute.
Reached in 1968, the NPT has been billed as a grand bargain between the five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and non-nuclear states which agreed to give up atomic weapon ambitions in exchange for disarmament pledges.
But 45 years after the NPT entered into force, non-nuclear states are feeling increasingly frustrated about the outcome.
"Right now, the non-nuclear states need to be given the sense that they are taken seriously," said Kane.
Delegates to the NPT conference are working on a document laying out priorities on the disarmament agenda for the next five years, but some diplomats have not ruled out that disagreements could lead to a collapse of the conference.
Kane warned that the next five years will be crucial to ensure that the NPT "retains credibility."
AFP
