Noting that the Nuclear Non—Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is under tremendous pressure, US President Barack Obama has said that the United States is committed to strengthen every aspect of the agreement to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
“Forty years after the Nuclear Non—Proliferation Treaty entered into force, we have come together to answer a simple question with consequences for us all: as individual nations and as an international community, will we uphold the rights and responsibilities of all nations in order to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons” Mr. Obama in his message to the NPT Review Conference at the UN headquarters in New York.
The NPT has been the cornerstone of collective efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons for four decades, he said.
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“But today, this regime is under increasing pressure. A year ago in Prague, I therefore made it a priority of the United States to strengthen each of the treaty’s key pillars as we work to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them,” Mr. Obama said.
“Over the coming weeks, we will see whether nations with nuclear weapons will fulfil their NPT obligations to move toward nuclear disarmament,” he said.
“We will see whether nations without nuclear weapons will fulfil their obligation to forsake them,” Mr. Obama said, adding history shows that nations that pursue this path find greater security and opportunity as an integrated member of the international community.
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“Nations that ignore their obligations find themselves less secure, less prosperous and more isolated. That is the choice nations must make,” he said.
America is committed to ensure that nations abiding by their obligations could access peaceful nuclear energy and it would pursue a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, the US president added.