PGA reaction to nuclear proliferation and nuclear arms (coincides with visits to CTBTO and IAEA lab)

Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77^th session of the General Assembly

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Reaction to nuclear proliferation and nuclear weapons

22 May 2023

Today I have paid a visit to the CTBTO in Vienna.

It gives me the opportunity to turn to the world, to turn to the leaders of the world, leading politicians, scientists, and civil society.

We have to change the course of events. We have to change the course of our approach to nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

I would like to raise my voice and add of that of Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida of Japan and most of the small countries who have spoken in favor of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

The world is going to a dangerous direction.

Some threshold countries are carrying on their nuclear programs, developing nuclear weapons, and some of the nuclear weapon countries, some of the P5 countries, are using the political instrument in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis, particularly in the case of the war against Ukraine.

In 1985, President (Mikhail) Gorbachev and President (Ronald) Reagan agreed that nuclear war cannot be won, therefore nuclear wars must not be fought.

Two years ago, the five permanent members of the Security Council reconfirmed this approach.

Nevertheless, we are hearing on a weekly basis that nuclear weapons could be used, could be considered as a tool of resolving political or military conflicts. It is not the case. It cannot be the case. We cannot play with a nuclear Armageddon.

What gives me also a special cause for concern, the nuclear safety.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia, nuclear power plant is in a war zone under near constant bombardment.

Today it is the seventh occasion when the outside power supply has been cut.

We are testing our luck.

We might be running out of our luck. The result could be more dangerous than what happened in Chernobyl many, many years ago.

So my appeal to all leaders, all civil society actors and all scientists in the world, please raise your voice.

We should stop the nuclear proliferation.

We should come back to the nuclear arms control regimes.

And we should come back to the notion that this world must be at the end of the day free of nuclear arms.

I wish you all a nuclear free future.