NEW YORK: The United Nations marks September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, with an estimated 12,187 nuclear weapons still remaining worldwide.
UN figures say nuclear-armed countries continue to fund long-term programmes to modernise their arsenals. More than half of the world’s population lives in countries that possess nuclear weapons or belong to nuclear alliances.
Meanwhile, the international arms-control framework has weakened. New START expired on February 5 without a successor arrangement after limiting strategic weapons held by the United States and the Russian Federation.
As a result, the UN says no agreed limits now constrain the two countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time since the 1970s. It also says no nuclear disarmament negotiations are underway.
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The UN General Assembly created the observance through resolution 68/32 in December 2013. It followed a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament held in New York that September.
Resolution 68/32 called for the “urgent commencement of negotiations” on a comprehensive convention covering nuclear weapons.
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Observed annually since 2014, the day seeks to raise public awareness about nuclear weapons and encourage international efforts towards their elimination.
The first Review Conference of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is scheduled for November 30 to December 4.
