Russia vetoed a UN resolution that the United States and Japan have sponsored to urge all nations to stop a dangerous place nuclear weapons race.
The voting in the 15- part Security Council was 13 in behalf, Russia opposed and China abstinence. Russia criticized the measure as politicized and claimed it did not go far enough to ban all types of storage weapons.
The solution would have urged all nations to agree to the need to verify compliance and not to produce or use nuclear weapons or various weapons of mass destruction in place as prohibited by a 1967 global treaty that included the US and Russia.
Following the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield pointed out that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has stated that Moscow has no purpose of deploying atomic weapons in storage, but that the country’s reject raises the question of what the country might be hiding.
Thomas- Greenfield’s news of the resolution on March 18 followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a” unsettling” anti- satellite weapon capability, although for a weapon is never operating however.
Putin later claimed that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space and that it has only developed similar space capabilities to those of the United States.
Before the vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that the resolution was “absurd and politicised.”
Nebenzia suggested an amendment to the US-Japan draft that stated that an arms race in space should cover all types of weapons, not just nuclear and other mass destruction. Because it failed to receive the minimum nine “yes” votes needed for adoption, it was defeated by a vote of seven countries in favor, seven against, and one abstention.
The defeated draft resolution stated that” the prevention of an arms race in space would prevent a serious danger to international peace and security.” It would have urged all nations that engaged in space exploration and use to adhere to international law and the UN Charter.
The draft would have stated that nations that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must abide by their obligations to not station such weapons in space or place them on celestial bodies.
The agreement, which was ratified by 114 nations, including the United States and Russia, forbids the use of “nuclear weapons or any other types of weapons of mass destruction” in space or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
In all its aspects, the draft resolution emphasized the need for additional measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective verification provisions.
It was once more stated that Geneva’s UN Conference on Disarmament has the authority to negotiate agreements to stop an arms race in space.
The 65-nation body has had few successes and has largely evolved into a forum for nations to criticize other countries ‘ weapons programs or defend their own. A balanced and comprehensive program of work would have been urged by the draft resolution to be put into place and put into practice.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reaffirmed at the March council meeting that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.
He claimed that Robert Oppenheimer’s film” Oppenheimer,” which he directed the US project that created the atomic bomb during World War II, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions of people all over the world.”
” Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer”, the UN chief said.
