UN chief urges total elimination of N-arms

By Dharam Shourie

United Nations

Oct. 25: Making a strong pitch for total elimination of nuclear weapons, UN Secr-etary-General Ban Ki-moon has mooted a multi-prong strategy to achieve the goal, including steps to bring CTBT into force and assurance to non-nuclear states that they would not be subjected to an atomic attack.

He asked the nuclear weapon states to move towards complete elimination of atomic arms, stressing that the cost and risk of any alternative strategy would be heavy. Noting that the financial crisis has triggered an increasing awareness of the need for international cooperation to tackle the global issues, he called for taking advantage of the atmosphere to revitalise the international disarmament agenda. In his address to East-West Institute, he advocated a five-point proposal to achieve the aim but it was not well received by either of the major powers — the United States and Russia who hold most of the warheads and have failed to respond to any major move to reduce their number.

India too has repeatedly proposed time-bound nuclear weapon disarmament. In fact, several disarmament groups have expressed their dismay at the major powers trying to improve upon the weapons they already possess to increase their effectiveness and power. —PTI