Spending on Nuclear Arms Reaches a Hefty $83 Billion & Rising
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 12 June 2023 (IDN) — As geopolitics take a turn for the worse—with Russian nuclear threats in Ukraine, the saber-rattling by North Korea and the increasing political confrontation between the US and China—there are rising investments in the world’s expanding nuclear arsenals.
Global spending on nuclear weapons increased in 2022 for the third year in a row as the nine nuclear-armed states continued to modernize and expand their arsenals.
Universalization of Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty Is Essential
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | TOKYO, 11 June 2023 (IDN) — Peacebuilder and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, who is president of the Tokyo-based Soka Gakkai International (SGI), issued a statement ahead of the meeting of the Group of 7 (G7) countries in Hiroshima May 19-21, calling on the G7 leaders to take bold steps toward resolving the conflict in Ukraine and guarantee the security of all humanity by taking the lead in discussions on pledges of No First Use of nuclear weapons. (P09) ARABIC | GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH | SWEDISH
Need To Undertake a Comprehensive Study of Nuke-free Zones
Growing importance of NWFZs
Viewpoint by Dr. J. Enkhsaikhan
The writer is Chairman of Blue Banner NGO and Former Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations
ULAANBAATAR, 5 June 2023 (IDN) — Nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) are important and practical regional measures of non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWSs) in promoting the goals of nuclear non-proliferation and strengthening confidence among states. (P08) CHINESE | JAPANESE | RUSSIAN
A United Civil Society Push for Spain to Join the TPNW
By ICAN
GENEVA | MADRID, 31 May 2023 (IDN) — Forty-five civil society organisations in Spain have come together to form a coalition with a single mission: to persuade the Spanish government to adhere to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear (Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament), which has the backing of ICAN, was launched in Madrid on 23 May. It will work to raise public awareness of the treaty’s importance and lobby decision-makers to endorse it.
A Nuclear-Free World Begins with Young Leaders
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 31 May 2023 (IDN) — The United Nations now believes—and perhaps rightly so—that a world free of nuclear weapons should begin primarily with young future leaders.
In pursuing this ambitious goal, the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the government of Japan are calling on young people to apply for an innovative learning programme that will empower them to make their contribution to a world free of the deadly weapons. (P07) GERMAN | JAPANESE | HINDI
G7 Leaders Falter Over Nuclear Disarmament in Hiroshima
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 22 May 2023 (IDN) — When leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) countries met in Hiroshima May 19-21, one of the issues on the agenda was nuclear disarmament.
The venue of the summit was symbolically stark because the US atomic bombings in 1945 killed over 226,000 people in the twin Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the heaviest toll in Hiroshima.
But the seven leaders—from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union (EU)—failed to produce anything singularly significant towards “a world without nuclear weapons”. (P 06) ARABIC | CHINESE | JAPANESE | RUSSIAN
The Right to Life: A Missing Perspective on Nuclear Arms
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 21 May 2023 (IDN) — The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) has made a new submission to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in advance of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Russian Federation.
Currently, the tentative schedule of the UPR Working Group, with Russia on its agenda, is 13 November, with the adoption of the final report on 17 November.
A 21st Century Freeze on Nuclear Weapons: Will it be a Reality?
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 13 May 2023 (IDN) — US Senator Edward Markey (Democrat from Massachusetts) announced plans on May 4 to re-introduce legislation that would establish a 21st century freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons.
A former US army reservist and co-president of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), Markey will re-introduce into the US Senate the Hastening Arms Limitation Talks (HALT) Act. (P 05) ITALIAN | JAPANESE | RUSSIAN
Should We Fear Nuclear Submarine Proliferation?
Evil is in the eye of the beholder
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarães Capt. (ret.) Brazilian Navy*
RIO DE JANEIRO, 11 May 2023 (IDN) — The potential cause-effect relationship between nuclear attack submarine development and nuclear weapons production by Non-Proliferation Treaty/nonnuclear-weapons states is a subject that has been scarcely discussed in unclassified sources until the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS), announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. [P 04] JAPANESE | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH
Arab States Discuss Developments in Nuclear Disarmament
By Bernhard Schell
CAIRO, 10 May 2023 (IDN) — Recent developments in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation, with a focus on the Middle East region, has been the centerpiece of a diplomatic forum in Qatar, which has been joined by high-level officials representing 20 Arab League.
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