The head of the session of the UN General Assembly announced the approach of a nuclear catastrophe

As never before in the current century, the world has come close to a global catastrophe. About it declared Chairman of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Chaba Quereshi at a meeting dedicated to the celebration and promotion of the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

“We must make every effort to put an end to nuclear testing. These are our own words from 2010, when the General Assembly declared the International Day Against Nuclear Tests on 29 August. However, today in this assembly there is no reason to celebrate,” Quereshi said.

He noted that “there are more and more dangers in the world.”

“Today, more than ever before in this century, we are closer to a global catastrophe. And still we are not able to see that humanity is faced with this terrifying trap due to the fact that they are betting on nuclear weapons, ”said the head of the UN General Assembly.

According to Quereshi, global military spending reached a record $2.2 trillion in 2022. “There are numerous signals that nuclear arsenals and capabilities are increasing in defiance of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty,” he said.

He called the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty a key element of the international disarmament structure.

“Our duty is to make the nuclear test ban legally binding on all states. We must remember that the use of any nuclear weapon for whatever purpose will immediately spiral out of control. The so-called limited nuclear war simply does not exist,” Quereshi said at the end of his speech.

By data Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was opened for signature in New York on September 24, 1996, it was signed by 186 states and ratified by 178. Russia ratified the CTBT in 2000. For the CTBT to enter into force, it must be ratified by the 44 states listed in the annex to the treaty. Of these states, 36 have ratified the CTBT, including three nuclear-weapon states: Russia, Britain and France. Of the remaining eight countries, three did not sign the treaty – India, North Korea and Pakistan; Five have signed but not ratified: the United States, China, Egypt, Israel, and Iran.

August 7 in the speech of the delegation of the Russian Federation at the session of the preparatory committee of the 11th conference to review the operation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna notedthat the CTBT occupies an important place in international efforts to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

“Russia actively participated in the development of the CTBT, ratified it in 2000 and strictly fulfills its obligations under it. Since the early 1990s our country strictly observes the voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing,” the statement said.

At the same time, it was noted with regret that a quarter of a century after the CTBT was opened for signing, the CTBT had not entered into force, and the ratification procedures had not been carried out by eight states.

“The situation was further complicated by the official refusal of the United States to ratify the treaty in 2018. Despite the declarative readiness of the current American administration to make efforts to bring the CTBT into force as soon as possible, we see no real steps from Washington in this direction. Thus, the fate of this important agreement remains, to put it mildly, uncertain,” the speech said.