ARMAMENTS

Photo: Karipbek Kuyukov with Kazakh Ambassador to Austria.

ATOM Project Ambassador Kuyukov Receives Nuclear-Free Future Award

ASTANA (IDN) – Kazakhstan's famous artist, activist of the international anti-nuclear movement and Honorary Ambassador of ATOM Project Karipbek Kuyukov has received Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA).

The awarding ceremony was held end of October at Salzburg University in Austria.

Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria Kairat Sarybay congratulated NFFA laureates and highly praised their anti-nuclear activity. He said that the award proves recognition of Kazakhstan's role and Kazakh President's initiative on global processes in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

: Ramesh Jaura; CENTRAL ASIA; 05 November 2018

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on 16 July 2018. Credit: website of the President of the Russian Federation.

INF Treaty Decision is a Debacle, But Worse May Be Coming

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The author is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article appeared on 1 November 2018, and is being reproduced by courtesy of the think-tank. – The Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Earlier this year, President Donald Trump told reporters that he wanted to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin "to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control." He characterized the costly nuclear weapons upgrade programs being pursued by each side as "a very, very bad policy."

: Daryl G. Kimball; OPINION; 01 November 2018

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu speaking at Hiroshima University on 'Challenges for Disarmament in 21 century' on August 6, 2018. Credit: UNODA

Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament Go Hand in Hand

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

Following are extensive excerpts from remarks by Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), at the Roundtable Discussion on the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) hosted by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations on 25 October 2018. Ambassador Dato' Sri Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob of Malaysia has been appointed as Chair of the Third Preparatory Committee session of this NPT review cycle from April 29 to May 10, 2019 in New York. – The Editor

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 29 October 2018

Photo: The U.S. Army launches a Pershing II battlefield support missile. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The INF Treaty Looks Likely to be a Dead Letter by April 2019

Viewpoint by Dan Smith

The following article by Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), first appeared on October 23, 2018 on the Institute's website. He has a long record of research and publication on a wide range of conflict and peace issues. Smith served four years in the UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory group, two of which (2010–2011) were as Chair. – The Editor

STOCKHOLM (IDN-INPS) – At a political rally on October 20, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty). This confirms what has steadily been unfolding over the past couple of years: the architecture of Russian-U.S. nuclear arms control is crumbling.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 28 October 2018

Photo credit: Audrey Tirtaguna | The Daily Pennsylvanian

Experts Underline the Gravity of a Potential Nuclear Conflict

By Claire Ochroch

This report first appeared on October 25, 2018 in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Speakers from across the world stopped by Penn's Perry World House on October 23 evening to discuss the importance of denuclearization.

The event, called the Penn Peace Project, was hosted by the International Affairs Association. Speakers included Veronique Christory, Senior Arms Control Advisor of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Susanne Hammer, Austrian First Secretary Disarmament Officer, who touched on how nuclear weapons affect people's daily lives.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 October 2018

Participation in Landmark NATO Exercise Reveals Iceland's Dilemma

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe, has no standing army. But it is a founding member of the 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and is therefore taking part in Trident Juncture 2018, the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War in December 1991.

Briefing the media on October 24, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, the exercise includes around 65 ships, 250 aircraft, 10,000 vehicles and 50,000 personnel. In addition to all NATO Allies, Finland and Sweden are also participating.

: Lowana Veal; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 26 October 2018

Photo: Yerzhan Ashikbayev, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, chairing a side event at the Kazakh Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. Source: UNODA

Kazakh Initiated Forum Underlines Importance of NWFZs

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu has expressed her "gratitude" to the Kazakhstan for their continued partnership with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), including through a series of Nuclear Discussion Forums (NDF), now in its eighth year.

She was addressing a side event of the UN General Assembly's First Committee on October 18 at the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations. The event featured a panel discussion about Consolidating and Enhancing Cooperation among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs). It was chaired by Yerzhan Ashikbayev, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan.

: Santo D. Banerjee; CENTRAL ASIA; 23 October 2018

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). Credit: UNODA

Full Potential of Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones Has Yet to be Recognised

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The following are extensive excerpts from a statement by Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at a side event on October 18, 2018, organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations on Consolidating and Enhancing Cooperation among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Between the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which was signed in in 1967, to the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, which entered into force in 2009, the world has experienced a growing adherence from States to nuclear weapon-free zones treaties.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 23 October 2018

Photo: The United States Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was high on Gorbachev's agenda at the Geneva Summit in November 1985. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Time Out for Nukes!

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The author is a member of the World Beyond War Coordinating Committee and the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

NEW YORK (IDN) – With 122 nations having voted last summer (July 2017) to adopt a treaty for the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons, just as the world has banned chemical and biological weapons, its seems that the world is locked in a new Cold War time-warp, totally inappropriate to the times.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 October 2018

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.