Nazarbayev called nuclear countries to give up their ambitions

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev called nuclear states to give up their ambitions. He believes that unwillingness of some countries to get rid of nuclear weapons may provoke arms race, Tengrinews.kz reports from the 66th session of the UN General Assembly. “We acknowledge the treaty between the USA and Russia on gradual reduction their nuclear arsenals. We think that it is important that all the Nuclear Club countries join this initiative. The situation is paradoxic in the world today: some countries are allowed to own and improve nuclear weapons, while other countries are strongly forbidden to even develop them. This is unfair, disproportional and dishonest. Such provisions of the international law have to be reconsidered. I am talking about increasing responsibility of all countries, nuclear states to begin with, for lowering the number of nuclear weapons until their complete elimination. There are currently no clear legal guarantees for non-nuclear states from the countries that own nuclear weapons. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty does not work in this important direction. Currently nuclear weapons are not constraining but accelerating the arms race,” Nursultan Nazarbayev said on September 21. He expressed an opinion that only a collegial body with broad powers, such as the UN Security Council, is able to effectively perform the functions of global restraint in the arms race of the 21st century. “I suggest to sign a collective request to de facto nuclear countries to give up their ambitions and join global treaties,” Nazarbayev applied to the UN member-states. Kazakhstan President suggested to start development of a global declaration of nuclear-free world and expressed his big hopes in the Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Seoul in 2012.