UN Chief: Nuclear Annihilation 'One Miscalculation Away'

United Nations Secretary-Gen. Antonio Guterres said Monday that rising geopolitical tensions throughout the globe are increasing the danger of nuclear war at a level not seen since the height of the cold war.

"The clouds that parted following the end of the Cold War are gathering once more," Guterres told the 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in New York. "We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy, nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict.

"Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. We need the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as much as ever."

The conference takes place every five years and was delayed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.N.

It runs through Aug. 26 at the U.N. campus in New York and reviews progress on the international treaty, which is "to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament."

"Almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world," Guterres said. " All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening, and when crises — with nuclear undertones — are festering from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and to many other factors around the world."

Guterres called for several things he said would help reduce the risk of nuclear conflict by countries committing not to use nuclear weapons, eliminating the weapons that exist, addressing the tensions in the Middle East and Asia, promoting peaceful use of nuclear technology, and fulfilling all existing commitments to the treaty.

"We are all here today because we believe in the Treaty's purpose and function," he said. "But carrying it into the future requires going beyond the status quo. It requires renewed commitment, and real, good faith negotiations. And it requires all Parties to listen, compromise and keep the lessons of the past — and the fragility of the future — in view at all times. Future generations are counting on your commitment to step back from the abyss."

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