ARMAMENTS

Photo credit: Peter Miller © Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

India Needs to Reify its Global Nuclear Disarmament Policy

Viewpoint by Pulkit Mohan

India's challenge in asserting its stance on global nuclear disarmament requires a precise articulation of its goals and plans, writes Pulkit Mohan, a Research Intern at India's prestigious Observer Research Foundation. The article first appeared on 28 September 2018, and is being reproduced courtesy the Foundation.

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – For India, non-proliferation challenges have warranted special attention both from regional and global contexts for several decades. India's tumultuous relationship with its neighbours and its desire to be a regional and global power has continually shaped the tenets of its nuclear weapons programme and policy.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 08 October 2018

Photo: Mike Pompeo, then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, meets with North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un over the Easter weekend (March 30 to April 1, 2018). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Pompeo Heads to Pyongyang in Quest of Denuclearization

By Kelsey Davenport & Alicia Sanders-Zakre

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy and Alicia Sanders-Zakre is research assistant at the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared in the Inaugural Issue: The North Korea Denuclearization Digest on October 3, 2018. It is being reproduced courtesy Arms Control Association. – The Editor

WASHIGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – After a long pause in U.S.-North Korea talks on denuclearization and peace, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Japan, China, North Korea, and South Korea October 6-8. He will visit Pyongyang October 7 and is expected to meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 05 October 2018

Photo: María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (centre right), President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly, listens as Secretary-General António Guterres (centre left) addresses the high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (26 September). At left is Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (ODA). UN Photo/Ariana Lindquist

UN High-Level Meeting Reflects Broad Support for Total Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has pursued the goal of nuclear disarmament since the adoption of the very first General Assembly resolution in 1946. But aware that countries possessing nuclear weapons have well-funded, long-term plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals, in 2013 the UN declared September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Commemorating that Day against the backdrop of a deteriorating global security environment and to mobilize international efforts towards achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world, the General Assembly convened a high-level plenary meeting on September 26 at the UN in New York.

: Santo D. Banerjee; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 30 September 2018

Photo (from left to right): Ms. Kaoru Nemoto, Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Tokyo; Mr. Nobuharu Imanishi, Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Division, MOFA; Ms. Masako Toki, Education project manager at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; Ms. Mitsuki Kudo, Nagasaki Youth Delegation 2018. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri.

Japan Considers Ways of Shedding the Straitjacket and Go the Whole Hog for Nuclear Abolition

The following is a revised version of the article posted on September 30, 2018.

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Japan's profound interest in the international community's efforts to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons was underlined in the run-up to the commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, which was observed first time in 2014 in accordance with a decision of the UN General Assembly.

Two events marked the efforts of Japan's civil society to avail of the day to enhance awareness of the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, and enable the country shed the straitjacket of compulsions imposed by the North Korean threat, delicate relations with China and the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 September 2018

Photo: Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, addresses the Security Council meeting on the maintenance of international peace and security, with a focus on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 26 September 2018, United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

The World Needs a Strong Legal Framework for Complete Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

Viewpoint by Kairat Abdrakhmanov

Following are extensive excerpts from the statement by Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the High-level Meeting of the UN Security Council on "Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Non-proliferation of WMD" on 26 September 2018 in New York.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Countering the spread and use of WMD: This goal is close to Kazakhstan’s heart, and is one of the key priorities of my country’s foreign policy. Kazakhstan’s firm and unwavering commitment to international peace and security commenced upon our independence in 1991.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 28 September 2018

Photo: Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. UN Photo/Milton Grant

Peacebuilders for a Nuclear-Weapon Free World

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow*

GENEVA (IDN) – As the world celebrated the UN-designated International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, there were still some 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world, largely in the hands of the United States and the Russian Federation, some on “ready alert”.

There are plans to “modernise” nuclear weapons, and there are at least seven other states with nuclear weapons: North Korea, Pakistan, India and China in Asia, Israel in the Middle East and France and the United Kingdom in Europe.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 27 September 2018

Photo: UNGA73 President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

Upcoming UN General Assembly Promises a Whiff of History

Fourth Woman President in 73 years – 18-year-old Female Activist to Speak at High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly opening on September 18 promises to be historic. Not only because its President, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, is the fourth woman on the top in the history of the UN’s main deliberative and policy-making body.

But also because on September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 18-year-old environmental and children's rights activist Kehkashan Basu will address the General Assembly. Espinosa has selected her to speak as one of the two representatives of global civil society.

: Santo D. Banerjee; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 September 2018

Photo: A glimpse of the former nuclear testing site. Credit: Katshuhiro Asagiri, IDN-INPS Multimedia Director.

My Life Will Never be the Same Again

By Ilya Kursenko

ON TRAIN FROM KURCHATOV TO ASTANA (IDN) – A Russian member of the CTBTO Youth Group, llya Kursenko, attended the five-day 2018 Youth International Conference of the CTBTO Youth Group and the Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) which concluded on September 2 in Astana, capital city of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

The participants also travelled to Kurchatov, a town in East Kazakhstan Region in north-east Kazakhstan. Named after Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, the town was once the center of operations for the adjoining Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. The nuclear facilities at Kurchatov are managed by the Kazakhstan Institute of Atomic Energy, a division of the country's National Nuclear Center. <WATCH VIDEO>

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 September 2018

Photo: Karipbek Kuyukov, Artist and The ATOM Project Honorary Ambassador addresses the UN General Assembly on September 6, 2018. Credit: CTBTO.

Kudos for Kazakhstan's 'Leading Role' as UN General Assembly Campaigns for Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The International Day against Nuclear Tests (IDANT) has been observed around the world on August 29 since 2010. A new element was added this year when President of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák, convened a high-level plenary meeting on September 6 "to commemorate and promote" this landmark Day and the Nuclear‑Test‑Ban Treaty.

Delegates from member states of the United Nations evoked the catastrophic consequences and suffering caused by the testing and use of nuclear weapons, and called upon countries that have not done so to sign – and ratify – the Comprehensive Nuclear‑Test‑Ban Treaty (CTBT), in limbo for 22 years.

: Santo D. Banerjee; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 07 September 2018

Photo: Killer robot. Credit: ploughshares.ca

Global Ban on Killer Robots Vital for Ensuring Human Control over Weapons of War

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The widespread deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) – commonly known as "killer robots" – capable of operating with minimal human oversight, is likely to transform the future battlefield, accelerating the pace of fighting and delegating many critical battle decisions to machines, the Arms Control Association (ACA) has warned.

According to the ACA Executive Director Daryl G. Kimball, the unregulated deployment of LAWS could in fact lead to violations of the Law of War and international humanitarian law and increase the risk of uncontrolled escalation in a major-power crisis.