UN chief urges member nations to cut nuke arsenals

United Nations, Jan 23: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged all member states to do their level best to make the world a nuclear threat free place.

''Our aim should be twofold - we must prevent any expansion of nuclear arsenals, and we must accelerate the reduction of existing weapons and stockpiles. All countries should move towards halting production of fissile material for weapons,'' Mr Ban said in a speech read out by the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and director-general of the UN Office in Geneva Sergei Ordzhonikidze.

A transcript of Mr Ban's remarks was made available yesterday at the UN headquarters in New York.

The UN chief added, ''Maintaining the moratorium on nuclear tests is equally important, and should be in effect at least till the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty enters into full force.'' Mr Ban appealed to all states, that have not yet done so, to sign or ratify the pact.

Preventing an arms race in space also continues to be an ''urgent challenge''.

The UN chief told the 65 member states of the conference, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, that ''stakes are high'' in dealing with these issues, as he also highlighted the massive amount of money spent on arms and suggested this would be better used helping to fund the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce poverty and other global ills by 2015.

''World military spending has now risen to over 1.2 trillion dollars,'' he said. ''This incredible sum represents 2.5 per cent of global GDP (gross domestic product). Even if 1 per cent of it were redirected towards development, the world would be much closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals,'' he added.

Yesterday's plenary session also heard speeches from Ambassador Glaudine Mtshali of South Africa, president of the conference, and the representatives of Poland, Slovakia, the United States, the Netherlands and Russia.

During 2007, the rotating presidency of the conference will be held by Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and Syria. The three parts of the 2007 session will be held from January 22 to March 30 for the first part; May 14 to June 29 for the second; and July 30 to September 14 for the last.

In 2006, the conference could not reach agreement on a programme of work and so was unable to start work on substantial issues.

However, it did debate the Conference's agenda items, focusing mainly on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war and other related issues.

UNI