The Nuclear Weapons Convention: Achieving Global Zero
 Ban Ki-Moon, speaking at a conference organized by the East-West Institute. |
On Oct 24, United Nations Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave a landmark speech entitled Contagious doctrine of deterrence has made non-proliferation more difficult, in which he called on governments to fulfill their nuclear disarmament obligations through negotiating a package of instruments or a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention. |
He noted that “I have circulated to all United Nations Member States a draft of such a convention, which offers a good point of departure.”
Ban Ki-moon also:
- called on the UN Security Council to initiate discussions on ‘issues in the nuclear disarmament process’
- encouraged the negotiation and implementation of a number of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament treaties;
- proposed that the Nuclear Weapon States become more transparent about the size of their arsenals, stocks of fissile material and specific disarmament achievements.
- supported complementary measures for the elimination of other types of WMD; new efforts against WMD terrorism; limits on the production and trade in conventional arms; and new weapons bans, including of missiles and space weapons.
The conference included speeches supporting disarmament by other influential leaders including Mohammed ElBaradei (Secretary-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency), Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State) and leaders from the E.U., China, India, Japan and Pakistan. PNA congratulates the Secretary-General and the participants, and will work to assist in fulfilling the five goals. We have called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to take the lead for the US in implementation of goals that are consistent with President Obama’s call for a “world free of nuclear weapons.”
NWC strategy session followed UN Secretary-General’s announcement
Following the speech by Ban Ki-moon on United Nations Day, Alyn Ware, PNND Global Coordinator, and Jonathan Granoff, of Global Security Institute and a Board Member at the Project for Nuclear Awareness, helped lead a Seminar at the East-West Institute Conference on next steps in “getting to zero by way of an NWC. Also attending, among many others, were Edward A. Aguilar, PNA executive director, Henrik Salander of the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, and many leaders of the nuclear disarmament movement in the United States and around the world.
Compiled from materials by Alyn Ware, PNND global coordinator; Ed Aguilar, PNA executive director