Nuclear: TIAN signatories in Vienna, without Russia, France or the United States
None of the nine countries holding the supreme weapon agreed to participate in the meeting.
AFP - JOE KLAMAR
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
For the first time since its entry into force at the beginning of 2021, the signatory states of the International Treaty banning nuclear weapons (TIAN) are meeting for three days in Austria.
But major powers are missing the call of the treaty, ratified to date by 62 States out of 86 signatories.
Advertising
Read more
The text, which came into force last year under the aegis of the UN, aims to purely and simply prohibit the development, production or purchase of nuclear weapons.
More than 50 countries have ratified it, but the downside, none of the nine countries holding the supreme weapon (United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea) n has so far agreed to sign it, or even to participate in the meeting as observers.
An irresponsible absence, in particular in the context of the war in Ukraine, is alarmed Jean-Marie Collin, the spokesperson in France for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), at the origin of the treaty.
“
All these states are engaged in policies to modernize and renew their arsenals.
They go against international law, against the Non-Proliferation Treaty which is the cornerstone of the entire legal framework for nuclear weapons.
We have a real problem
,” warns the spokesperson for the French branch of ICAN, awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2017
for their advocacy for the complete elimination of nuclear arsenals.
In France, we really notice a double speak: a very positive international language on multilateralism, but an extremely bland reality.
Still more funds allocated to the nuclear arsenal
Spending by nuclear powers to modernize their atomic arsenals increased by almost 9% in 2021 to reach $82.4 billion, according
to an ICAN report
published on June 14.
The United States alone spent $44.2 billion on its nuclear program last year, up 12.7% from the previous year.
China, for its part, devoted 11.7 billion to it (an increase of 10.4% in one year).
The budgets devoted by Russia (8.6 billion), France (5.9 billion) and the United Kingdom (6.8 billion) to nuclear weapons have increased slightly.
► To read also:
What impact for the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?
The invasion of Ukraine tenses
"
This conference will be held in a sad and dangerous context since we have the case of a State which has a nuclear arsenal and which ultimately uses its nuclear arsenal to facilitate aggressive action to go and invade Ukraine
", recalls he, in reference to the
invasion of Ukraine by Russia
launched on February 24th.
More than ever, says ICAN, multilateral nuclear disarmament is needed.
"
Nuclear-armed countries spent $6.5 billion more in 2021 and they weren't able to stop a nuclear power from starting a war in Europe
," adds Alicia Sanders-Zakre, coordinator research at ICAN.
“
President Putin has verbally multiplied threats against various European capitals, including Paris.
And the answer to that, it can't be absence, it can't be silence!
The response to this danger must be the presence, at the very least, as observers
”, declares Jean-Marie Collin, joined by
Vincent Souriau
of the international service of RFI.
► Replay Lines of Defense: Nuclear Fire: Nash's Balance
(and with AFP)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Nuclear
Defense
Ukraine
Russia
France