Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, told the late final meeting of the conference to review the 50-year-old Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that “unfortunately there is no consensus on this document.” He insisted that many countries — not just Russia — disagreed on “a number of issues” in the latest 36-page draft. The final document needed the approval of all countries at the conference that are parties to the treaty aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a world without them. Argentina’s Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, chairman of the conference, said the final draft represented his best efforts to deal with the parties’ divergent views and expectations “for a progressive outcome” at a time in history when “our world is falling apart.” and more than conflict and, most alarmingly, the ever-increasing prospect of unthinkable nuclear war.” But after Vishnevetsky’s speech, Zlauvinen told delegates: “I see that at this point, the conference is unable to reach agreement on its essential work.” The NPT review conference was supposed to be held every five years, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This marked the second failure of the 191 member states to produce an outcome document. The last review conference in 2015 ended without agreement due to serious differences over the creation of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction. Those differences have not disappeared, but they are being debated, and draft outcome documents obtained by The Associated Press would have reaffirmed the importance of creating a nuclear-free Middle East zone. So this was not seen as a major obstacle this year. The topic that changed the dynamics of the conference was Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which brought Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia is a “strong” nuclear power and that any attempt to intervene would lead to “consequences that you’ve never seen.” .” It also put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert. Putin has since backtracked, saying “a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought,” a message echoed by a senior Russian official on the opening day of the NPT conference on August 2. But the Russian leader’s initial threat and seizure of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine, as well as the seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency. The four references in the draft final document to the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing, would have NPT parties expressing “serious concern about military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear power plants. It would also have acknowledged Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s failure to ensure the safety of the plant’s nuclear material. He supported efforts by the IAEA to visit Zaporizhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, a trip the agency’s director hopes to organize in the coming days. The draft also expressed “serious concern” about the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, particularly Zaporizhia, and stressed “the utmost importance of ensuring control by the relevant authorities of Ukraine.” After the failure of the conference to approve the document, dozens of countries took the floor to express their views. Indonesia, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement of 120 developing countries, expressed disappointment at the failure, calling the final document “of the utmost importance”. Yan Huang, France’s ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, read a statement from 56 countries and the European Union, reaffirming unwavering support for Ukraine and condemning Russia’s “dangerous nuclear rhetoric, actions and provocative statements to increase of its nuclear alert level.” The countries expressed deep concern that Russia is undermining international peace and the goals of the NPT by “waging its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.” The deputy head of Russia’s delegation, Andrei Belusov, said the conference has become a “political hostage” for countries that “poison the discussions” with political language about Ukraine and are determined “to come clean with Russia by raising issues that are not directly related with the treaty.” “These states, namely Ukraine and supporters of the Kiev regime, bear full responsibility for the absence of a final positive result,” he said. Adam Scheinman, the US special representative for nuclear non-proliferation, noted that the final draft never names Russia and said it downplays the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant “and fails to recognize what we all know to be true – that the risk of radiological destruction only exists because of Russia’s war of choice.” “Russia is the reason we don’t have consensus today,” he said. “The last-minute changes that Russia sought were not trivial. They were intended to shield Russia’s apparent intention to wipe Ukraine off the map.” Under the terms of the NPT, the five original nuclear powers—the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain, and France—agreed to negotiate to eliminate their arsenals someday, and non-nuclear-weapon nations promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee for the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The draft final document would have expressed deep concern “that the threat of the use of nuclear weapons today is higher than at any time since the height of the Cold War and in the deteriorating international security environment.” It would also have committed the parties to the treaty “to make every effort to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.” Rebecca Johnson, a British nuclear analyst and co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, said that “after weeks of wartime negotiations, unprecedented global risks and heightened nuclear threats, it is clearer than ever now that nuclear abolition is urgent and necessary.” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said: “This NPT conference represents a missed opportunity to strengthen the treaty and global security by agreeing on a concrete plan of action with benchmarks and timelines that are necessary to effectively address the growing risks of nuclear arms races and the use of nuclear weapons.”
