The five permanent members of the UN Security Council have
pledged to use nuclear weapons only for defensive purposes, to deter aggression and prevent war. Two things set this apart. It is the first time China, the United States, Russia, France and Britain have issued such a joint statement. And it reflects the concern that proliferation of weapons has the potential for a catastrophic nuclear miscalculation, a threat once posed by last century’s Cold War between the US and the old Soviet Union. Both Cold War powers maintained huge nuclear arsenals but were able to defuse their flashpoints bilaterally and also negotiate arms reductions.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has for decades provided a framework for preventing the spread of these weapons, for disarmament and promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It is the most widely accepted arms control agreement and critical to global security. But four of the few nations that are not party to it have become nuclear powers – India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
Proliferation of nuclear weapons has increasingly become an issue, with more countries considering acquiring them. A number of security flashpoints, such as Korea, Taiwan, the India-China border, the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, and the Middle East, involve nuclear powers. Over the past year, concerns about rivalry between China and the United States in developing weapons arsenals and delivery systems has been reflected by claims that China has built new missile silos in Gansu and
Xinjiang provinces, and that the US broke the intermediate missile treaty to clear the way for weapons development. China’s senior arms control official this week made clear it will continue upgrading its nuclear arsenal and urged the US and Russia to take the first steps to reduce their larger stockpiles. Concerns about nuclear weapons development are not confined to China and the US.
It is good for the P5, as the permanent members of the Security Council are known, to have issued this statement, even if it is seen to amount only to words, not action. They need to aim at more meaningful agreements. A pledge not to target other countries with weapons is a start towards playing a more practical role in nuclear arms control. There is also a need to strengthen the non-proliferation treaty. With the necessary technology becoming easier to obtain, the development of nuclear weapons by small countries cannot be ruled out. This is precisely the kind of dangerous situation the treaty was supposed to avert. It calls for the P5 to work together to head it off.
Not least, the cause of non-proliferation adds another patch of common ground to
climate change for China and the US to work together and narrow their differences.
