Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells UN nuclear power should either be free for all or banned
- Nuclear ‘inequality’ between countries undermines global balances, president tells gathering of world leaders
- Erdogan also calls on international community to help secure peace and safety in Syrian city of Idlib
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that nuclear power should either be free for all states or banned completely, and warned that the “inequality” between nations that have nuclear power and who do not undermines global balances.
Turkey signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1980, and has also signed the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear detonations for any purpose.
Erdogan has hinted in the past that he wanted he same protection for Turkey as Israel, which foreign analysts say possesses a sizeable nuclear arsenal.
Israel maintains a policy of ambiguity around the nuclear issue, refusing to confirm or deny its capabilities.
“The position of nuclear power should either be forbidden for all or permissible for everyone,” Erdogan told the United Nations General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders.