After protracted international talks, an estimated 129 nations are prepared to sign a global ban on nuclear weapons, the first ever such treaty and the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty in more than 20 years. Unfortunately, it won’t involve any actual disarmament.
That’s because every single nuclear weapons-having nation on the planet has boycotted the effort, along with the entire NATO alliance except for the Netherlands, though it’s not clear if even they are among the nations planning to sign the final treaty.
Most of the nations have quietly ignored the conferences, while the United States has been particularly outspoken in its opposition of the plan, saying that it was “not realistic” and that the US doesn’t trust the other nuclear powers to disarm if a deal was reached.
The final text is thus largely symbolic, though it does add at least a little momentum to the global disarmament movement. Future signatories to the treaty would be obliged to either disarm unilaterally before accession, or agree to a specific disarmament plan.
I have to agree, Jason .. Although 129 nations, after serious deliberations, decided to sign a treaty banning nuclear weapons, those 129 actually had no influence on the nuclear powers – those nations possessing them. That’s sad. Here are 129 countries, none of whom had any nuclear weapons, calling for an all-out ban on them. Those having them – especially, the US, India, Pakistan, Israel, etc. – aren’t about to listen to the nuclear weapons-free countries, calling the ban “unrealistic”.
Of course, this ban’s unrealistic to those other countries; they don’t want to dismantle them. The US and its controller, Israel, will never give them up; and that compels the other nuclear-armed countries to keep theirs as a deterrent.