Russia blocked the adoption of a joint statement on the United Nations nuclear disarmament treaty that criticized Moscow’s military seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, said the final draft, which ran to more than 30 pages, lacked “balance.” “Our delegation has a basic objection to some paragraphs that are blatantly political in nature,” he said, adding that Russia was not the only country that disagreed with the draft text. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which 191 signatories review every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament and promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Nations have been gathering at United Nations headquarters in New York since Aug. 1, engaging in a month of negotiations, including a final session that adjourned for several hours on Friday. Adam Scheinman, the US special representative for nuclear non-proliferation, noted that the final draft never named Russia and said it underestimated the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant[File:AlexanderErmochenko/Reuters)[File:AlexanderErmochenko/Reuters)[Αρχείο:AlexanderErmochenko/Reuters)[File:AlexanderErmochenko/Reuters) The conference’s president, Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina, said he was “not in a position to reach an agreement” after Russia contested the text. The latest draft text had expressed “serious concern” about military activities around Ukrainian power plants, including Zaporizhzhia, as well as Ukraine’s loss of control of such sites and the negative security implications. The signatories discussed a number of other key issues during the conference, including Iran’s nuclear program and North Korea’s nuclear tests. At the last review conference in 2015, the parties were also unable to reach agreement on substantive issues. The review conference scheduled to take place in 2020 has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nuclear annihilation”
At the opening of this year’s conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world was facing “a nuclear threat not seen since the height of the Cold War”. “Today, humanity is only one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” Guterres said. Adam Scheinman, the US special representative for nuclear non-proliferation, noted that the final draft never named Russia and said it underestimated the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant. “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.” Indonesia, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement of 120 developing countries, expressed its disappointment at the failure, calling the final document “of the utmost importance”. Rebecca Johnson, the founding president of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said she was disappointed with the outcome. “It’s very disappointing, but it shouldn’t be surprising,” he told Al Jazeera. “The NPT has long failed because it is essentially being used by nuclear-weapon states to bolster the legitimacy they attribute to nuclear weapons. Here it takes place at a time when Russia has launched an invasion of Ukraine, but has also threatened to use nuclear weapons in which deterrence has clearly failed.”
