UN warns any resumption of nuclear testing could trigger a new arms race
UN warns that renewed nuclear testing risks an arms race as key weapon states refuse to ratify the CTBT.
The United Nations has issued a stark warning that any resumption of nuclear testing could spark a fresh arms race, as major nuclear powers continue to withhold ratification of the treaty that bans atomic explosions.
Speaking at the General Assembly to mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests, UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu said the meeting was taking place amid "deep geopolitical tension, growing division and diminishing trust." She noted concern about the possible resumption of testing.
Late last year, the United States and Russia — which possess the world's largest nuclear arsenals — threatened to resume testing, alarming the international community. Washington accused Moscow and Beijing of conducting tests, a claim both deny.
"Even contemplating such a course is dangerous," Nakamitsu warned. "Any resumption would erode decades of restraint, deepen mistrust and risk triggering reciprocal tests and an arms race. This must never become reality."
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), adopted in 1996, requires ratification by 44 specific countries to enter into force. Nine have yet to do so. The United States, China, Iran, Egypt and Israel have signed but not ratified. India, Pakistan and North Korea have neither signed nor ratified. Russia had ratified but revoked its approval in 2023.
Robert Floyd, who heads the CTBT organisation, told the assembly that Tonga's ratification last month brought the number of parties to 179. He noted that while the planet has seen more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions since 1945, fewer than 12 have occurred in the past three decades. Still, he cautioned that the international scene is "tense, full of mistrust."
If testing resumes, Floyd warned, the result would be technologically advanced new arsenals, a soaring risk of miscalculation, and "devastation from nuclear 'bad luck.'"
The International Day also honours victims of the atomic era. Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, described how five generations of her family were exposed to radiation beginning with the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico in 1945, and how every generation since has suffered from cancer. She said people in Guam, Tahiti, Kazakhstan, Aboriginal areas of Australia, and several US states were also exposed.
"We're the people that became the collateral damage to the development and testing of nuclear devices and were left to deal with the consequences on our own," Cordova said. "It is why we fight for acknowledgment and assistance."