By Asia Pacific Report newsdesk SUVA (IDN) — The French government has denied any cover-up over radiation levels in the Pacific following its nuclear testing in the region, as state-backed discussions took place in Paris about the legacy of the explosions, reports France 24. A two-day meeting called by French President Emmanuel Macron was held […]
Protracted Talks Lead States to Settle on Next CTBTO Leader
By Daryl G. Kimball* The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — After an unusually contentious process that lasted for months, representatives from the member states of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) finally agreed to appoint Robert Floyd of Australia to […]
Sixteen States Urge the Nuclear-Weapon States to Take Decisive Steps Towards Disarmament
By Aar Jay Persius BERLIN (IDN) — “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.“ On June 16, at their meeting in Geneva, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin re-affirmed this fundamental truth, famously coined by their predecessors, Reagan and Gorbachev, at the last peak of the cold war, […]
Nuclear Weapons Have Always Been Illegal; It’s Long Past Time to Abolish Them
“History is written by the victors. Thus, the heinous massacre that was Hiroshima has been handed down to us as a perfectly justified act of war…. It is clear that the use of nuclear weapons, which cause indiscriminate mass murder that leaves survivors to suffer for decades, is a violation of international law.”– Hiroshima Mayor […]
Miles to Go Before the World Moves Further from the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe
By Aar Jay Persius BERLIN (IDN) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed at their June 16 summit in Geneva the principle agreed on by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. They also decided to […]
The US Builds A ‘Systemic’ Pact to Counter China’s Growing Influence
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) — Nearly five months after the termination of Donald Trump’s erratic presidency, US President Joe Biden has triggered a sort of ‘systemic’ pact against China—with partners in the Group of Seven (G-7), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU) at the June 11-15 summits. Thirty […]
NATO Plans to Focus on Russia and China
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (IDN) — “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a blunt interview with The Economist in November 2019. Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice”, he said, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise, […]
Optimism Over Progress in Vienna Talks on Iran Nuclear Deal
By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson and Sang-Min Kim While Kelsey Davenport is Director for Nonproliferation Policy and Julia Masterson, Research Associate at the Arms Control Association, Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The United States, Iran, and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal expressed varying degrees of optimism over the […]
Plea for Diverting Funds from Nuclear Weapons to Combating COVID-19
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) — The Nobel laureate International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of non-governmental organizations promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty, has been pleading for divestment in nuclear weapons. “The imminent entry-into-force of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear […]
The UK Defies Nuclear Treaties and Strengthens Atomic Arsenal
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) — Within three months of the UK’s complete withdrawal from all institutions of the European Union and from the European Atomic Energy Community on January 31, 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to increase by 40 per cent to 260 the country’s nuclear arsenal to “continue to be the […]