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By Ramu Damodaran
The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in this week’s #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on January 22.
NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Memory, more than modesty, made me miss mention last week of the single exclusive conversation I was privileged to have with Brian Urquhart and which lasted all of ninety seconds.
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf
The writer is the former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency and was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament established by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
VIENNA (IDN) – As the day broke today, 22 January 2021, a new era dawned in which nuclear weapons now are prohibited – finally banned – 75 years after the invention and use of nuclear weapons.
Viewpoint by Thomas Hajnoczi
The writer is the outgoing Director of Arms Control at the Austrian Foreign Ministry. He negotiated the TPNW*
VIENNA (IDN) – With its entry into force on January 22 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will become binding international law for the growing number of State Parties, for the moment 51 countries. Moreover, it is also having an effect on those states that do not intend to join it.
The nuclear-weapon states themselves testify to the TPNW's effectiveness by their campaign against it. They could have ignored it instead of pressuring countries not to sign and ratify.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) – Most of the world’s states can become a party to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and comply with the Treaty without making any changes to their existing policies and practices, says Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor (NWBM). But 42 states around the world currently engage in conduct that is not compatible with the new ban on nuclear weapons. In fact, Europe stands out as the region with the most states that act in conflict with the UN Treaty.
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The author is Ambassador, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago, in January 1946, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time after the signature of the Charter. Its first resolution was adopted on the 24th of that month. The developments mentioned and commented below come to mind as we recall the outcome of that inaugural session of the Assembly.
By Bernhard Schell
AMMAN (IDN) – The upcoming Review Conference (postponed to August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is expected to be characterised by deep divisions among the nuclear-weapon states (NWS), and between them and the non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWS), which are deeply disappointed with the lack of progress towards nuclear disarmament despite commitments laid down in the NPT and made at past NPT review conferences.
By Robert Johnson
BRUSSELS (IDN) – Amid speculations about Iran's reaction to the assassination of the country's eminent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on a road outside of Tehran on November 27, participants in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have reiterated their commitment to preserving the agreement and stressed their respective efforts in this regard.
The pledge emerged from a virtual ministerial meeting of the E3/EU+2 (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and the Islamic Republic of Iran on December 21, 2020. The EU High Representative Josep Borrell chaired the meeting.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) – Nearly one-and-half years after UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched Securing Our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament in May 2018, a new handbook to support disarmament for security and sustainable development has been released. Its approach and focus draw primarily on the Agenda. Titled Assuring our Common Future, published by four international parliamentary organizations and two international policy bodies on November 5, 2020, the new publication offers background and examples of effective policies and parliamentary actions on a wide range of disarmament issues.
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf* from Vienna for IDN
Great Expectations is a novel published in July 1861 by the renowned British writer, Charles Dickens. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip who has a stroke of good luck and great expectations but then loses both his luck and his expectations. Against that backdrop, the writer – an eminent nuclear disarmament expert – cautions that the taking of office by Joe Biden as US President next January would not mark the coming of the Messiah for nuclear arms control as wished for by his supporters. Besides, he argues, the already postponed tenth review conference of the parties to the NPT should be held in April-May 2022 in the Austrian capital city Vienna and not in August 2021 at the UN headquarters in New York. And this for two reasons: the wide-ranging impact of COVID-19 pandemic and Vienna offering an ideal venue for nuclear disarmament conferences.
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – A Soviet cosmonaut and an American astronaut shook hands high above the planet Earth, on July 17, 1975, where the Soviet spaceship Soyuz-19 and the U.S. spacecraft Apollo had met and docked.
In a message of greeting, the Soviet leadership described the "joint flight of the Soviet and US spaceships" as "a major step in the development of Soviet-American scientific and technological cooperation" opening up "new prospects for various countries to work together in the peaceful exploration of outer space".
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