UNODA: Address by Ms Angela Kane, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, to the CTBTO Preparatory Commission
“Colleagues, I will not ‘sugar coat’ it: 2015 promises to be a challenging year for disarmament. In August, we will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons. This ought to be a sobering reminder of the horrific consequences of these weapons and of the human cost of war. Instead, we find ourselves confronted by heightened tension between the Russian Federation and the United States that has dampened their appetites for further nuclear arms reductions and raised the alarming possibility of regression in existing agreements, underlined most recently by the United States’ accusations that Russian cruise missile tests are in contravention of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and Russia’s announcement that it will not participate in the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit.”
(United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs)
[source: UNODA]