Jacinda Ardern calls for United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom 'to step back from the nuclear abyss'

  • 25/08/2022
Jacinda Ardern said the world is at "greater risk of nuclear catastrophe than at any time since the height of the Cold War".
Jacinda Ardern said the world is at "greater risk of nuclear catastrophe than at any time since the height of the Cold War". Photo credit: Newshub

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called on the nuclear weapons states to "step back from the nuclear abyss" in an opinion piece published in The Guardian

In Ardern's op-ed, she highlights 191 countries are meeting in New York this week at the United Nations to renew the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and negotiate, which she said is "down to the wire".

"These talks offer a chance to breathe new life into nuclear disarmament at a time when the world needs that more than ever," she wrote. 

Ardern said the world is at "greater risk of nuclear catastrophe than at any time since the height of the Cold War".

"Growing superpower tensions and two decades of stalled progress on arms control have pushed the risk of these weapons closer to reality." 

The Prime Minister is calling on the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom to step away from the "nuclear abyss".

"Provide that leadership by committing to negotiate a new multilateral nuclear disarmament framework."

She said Aotearoa is in one of the best geographical positions in the world if a nuclear fallout was to happen, so she set out why our small island nation feels so strongly about the issue. 

"Our region bears the scars of decades of nuclear testing, on both the people and the lands and waters of our region. That's why for 35 years New Zealand has been proudly nuclear-free and an international advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons," she wrote.

"This does not mean we are naive to real-world dynamics, nor does our geographic location mean we have the luxury of a moral stance that others do not. In fact, New Zealand's message – that nuclear weapons do not make anyone safer and no longer have a place in our world – reflects the view of the overwhelming majority of countries. We just need to believe a different approach is possible."

She continued to add that "a lot is at stake" in New York, and with the current global environment, a new nuclear arms race could be inevitable to some. 

"But I cannot accept a logic that suggests insecurity and instability render us incapable of doing the very thing that would help make the world less insecure and less unstable – an idea that the history of the treaty itself shows is false."