The Ban Treaty ignores global security climate warns Wood

LONDON: The US has reiterated its opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, saying it would only make the world more dangerous at a time when it is facing a “very serious international security climate.”

The deal, known as the ‘Ban Treaty’, was adopted by 122 UN member states in July, and if at least 50 states sign it on Sept. 20, it will enter into legal force.

Robert Wood, the US Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva, said if that happens it would be a grave error, even though it would not be mandatory for those who do not sign it.

“You cannot divorce nuclear disarmament from the prevailing security environment,” Wood told Arab News in a phone interview from Geneva.

“The security environment today is a very, very serious one with what Russia is doing, with what China is doing in the South China Sea and, of course, we cannot forget the gentleman in Pyongyang who is trying to destabilize the Korean peninsula with threats of using nuclear weapons.”

The recent saber-rattling by North Korea continued on Thursday when the pariah state threatened to sink Japan and said the US should be “beaten to death like a rabid dog.”

For some that only adds to the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons, for the US, though, the current crisis underlines why now is not the time to talk about disarmament. “North Korea is the greatest nuclear challenge that the world faces and what the Ban Treaty is proposing is for nuclear weapons states to give up their nuclear weapons and for a number of our allies to stop depending on the nuclear umbrella for their security.

“The question I ask is that if the nuclear weapons states were to disarm tomorrow, is that something that’s going to be good for security when you have someone like Kim Jong-un, who is building up his nuclear weapons capabilities and is a huge danger to the planet?

“This is not a time to talk about nuclear disarmament.”

Kim Jong-un’s recent rhetoric has evoked memories of the Cold War, when nations lived in permanent fear of nuclear conflict.

Still, there are clear differences between now and then, according to Wood.

“I hesitate to compare periods, but I think when you look back to the 1950s and 1960s – the Soviet Union and its leadership at that time were certainly not irrational.

“What we’re dealing with today is a very irrational actor, in my view, a very dangerous one and this is a very huge threat.”

He rejected the notion that the current White House administration could also be accused of pursuing irrational foreign policy.

“Trying to compare Kim Jongun and that regime with the President of the United States is an absolutely false comparison, it’s ridiculous,” he said.

“The President has been trying to communicate the concerns we have about North Korea in a way the North Korean leader understands. We are a responsible actor, we are a democracy and these people who try to make those comparisons are farcical in my view.”

In the short term Wood said the only way to end the crisis was through diplomacy.

“We need to exhaust all of the diplomatic options we have with North Korea. The existing sanctions we have on the books need to be fully enforced.”