Humanity is just “a misunderstanding” or “misjudgment” of “nuclear annihilation”, the UN secretary-general warned on Monday, saying such a “no nuclear danger”[avait] It hasn’t been known since the height of the Cold War.”

“We have had extraordinary luck so far. But luck is not a strategy or a shield to prevent geopolitical tensions from turning into a nuclear conflict,” Antonio Guterres said at the opening of a conference of 191 signatory countries of the Treaty of No Nuclear proliferation. (NPT).

“Today humanity is facing a misunderstanding, a miscalculation of nuclear annihilation,” he hammered, calling to build a world “free of nuclear weapons.”

“New commitments” to reduce the nuclear arsenal

After being postponed several times since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 10th revision conference of the NPT, an international treaty that entered into force in 1970 to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, is being held until August 26 in United Nations headquarters in New York.

This meeting is an “opportunity to strengthen this treaty and adapt it to today’s world,” Antonio Guterres declared, hoping for a reaffirmation of the non-use of nuclear weapons but also “new commitments” to reduce the arsenal.

“Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee that they will never be used,” he added, adding that he will travel to Hiroshima in a few days for the anniversary of the bombing.

Almost 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world

“Nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons are stored in arsenals around the world. At a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and the safeguards to prevent this escalation are weakening”, he insisted, referring in particular to the “crises” in the Middle East, on the Korean peninsula and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In January, the five members of the Security Council (the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and France), also nuclear powers, had promised to “avoid further diffusion” of nuclear energy, just before a new postponement of review conference. .

At the last review conference in 2015, the parties were unable to agree on substantive issues.