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STORY: UN / NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
TRT: 05:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / CHINESE / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
18 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, Secretary-General, delegates, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer. Voice after voice, alarm after alarm, survivor after survivor, are calling the world back from the brink. And what is the response? States possessing nuclear weapons are absent from the table of dialogue.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“There is one path — and one path only — that will vanquish this senseless and suicidal shadow, once and for all. We need disarmament now.”
6. Med shot, Secretary-General, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Nuclear weapon States must urgently agree that none of them will be the first to use nuclear weapons. As a matter of fact, none should use them in any circumstances. And sixth — we need reductions in the number of nuclear weapons. This reduction must be led by the holders of the largest nuclear arsenals, the United States and the Russian Federation, who must find a way back to the negotiating table to fully implement the New START Treaty and agree on its successor.”
8. Med shot, CTBTO Executive Secretary, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“Since my last briefing to the Council, we’ve certified 4 more stations, bringing the total number of facilities to 306. This achievement includes the completion of two major national networks. Both Argentina and the Russian Federation have now established all facilities required within their territories – including stations in some of the most extreme environments.”
10. Med shot, CTBTO Executive Secretary, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, Director, International Organizations and Non-Proliferation Program (IONP), Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation:
“We are now witnessing a recommitment to nuclear weapons, an increase in the value attached to them that challenges the norm against their pursuit and acquisition and contributes to proliferation pressures. Furthermore, the divisions among the nuclear-weapon States are such that the actors whose cooperation is key to achieving outcomes and advancing the goals of the NPT are effectively not talking to each other.”
12. Med shot, IONP Director, delegates
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, Director, International Organizations and Non-Proliferation Program (IONP), Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation:
“The five countries defined as nuclear-weapon States under the NPT are also the five permanent members of the Security Council, to whom the UN Charter entrusts the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is this responsibility I want to emphasize and appeal to today, for it is in your hands – more than anyone else’s – to make sure that the nuclear taboo holds.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“We must comply with existing nuclear arms control obligations and engage constructively on potential new ones. The United States is willing to engage in bilateral arms control discussions with Russia and China right now, without preconditions. All they have to do is say yes and come to the table in good faith.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, China:
“Nuclear weapons are a product of history, and the nuclear disarmament will naturally have a historical process. Demanding that countries with vastly different nuclear policies and a number of nuclear weapons should assume the same level of nuclear disarmament and nuclear transparency obligations is not consistent with the logic of history and reality, nor is in line with international consensus, and as such will only lead the international nuclear disarmament to a dead end.”
18. Med shot, delegates
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
We are consistently shared the noble goal of a world free of nuclear weaponry, but at this point this goal seems to be fairly remote. This is a long-term remote prospective. Having nuclear weapons at this stage is an important factor in maintaining strategic balance. It is important to understand that appending this balance will plunge the world into endless wars and attempt to establish hegemonies by force.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. Pan left, CTBTO Executive Secretary walking to stakeout
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“The Non-Proliferation and disarmament architecture must be protected and strengthened in this current context. The CTBT has already been a great success in seeing almost the end to nuclear testing in the 27 years that the treaty has been open for signature.”
23. Close up, cameraman
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“There is a commitment amongst even those that have nuclear weapons to a moratorium on testing. We want to keep building on that and define the pathway in geo strategic circumstances to move towards a legally binding ban on testing. And then ultimately, that as a step towards a world without nuclear weapons. Not an easy path - implied in your question - but not a path which is impossible. It's worth it.”
25. Pan right, CTBTO Executive Secretary leaving stakeout
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer.”
Addressing the Security Council today (18 Mar) on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Guterres said, “Voice after voice, alarm after alarm, survivor after survivor, are calling the world back from the brink. And what is the response? States possessing nuclear weapons are absent from the table of dialogue.”
He also said, “There is one path — and one path only — that will vanquish this senseless and suicidal shadow, once and for all. We need disarmament now.”
Guterres stated, “Nuclear weapon States must urgently agree that none of them will be the first to use nuclear weapons. As a matter of fact, none should use them in any circumstances.”
According to the UN Secretary-General, “we need reductions in the number of nuclear weapons. This reduction must be led by the holders of the largest nuclear arsenals, the United States and the Russian Federation, who must find a way back to the negotiating table to fully implement the New START Treaty and agree on its successor.”
Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) Robert Floyd said that since his last briefing to the Council (Sep 2021), “we’ve certified 4 more stations, bringing the total number of facilities to 306. This achievement includes the completion of two major national networks. Both Argentina and the Russian Federation have now established all facilities required within their territories – including stations in some of the most extreme environments.”
Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, Director of the International Organisations and Non-Proliferation Programme (IONP) at the non-governmental organisation the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, said, “We are now witnessing a recommitment to nuclear weapons, an increase in the value attached to them that challenges the norm against their pursuit and acquisition and contributes to proliferation pressures. Furthermore, the divisions among the nuclear-weapon States are such that the actors whose cooperation is key to achieving outcomes and advancing the goals of the NPT are effectively not talking to each other.”
She also said, “The five countries defined as nuclear-weapon States under the NPT are also the five permanent members of the Security Council, to whom the UN Charter entrusts the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is this responsibility I want to emphasize and appeal to today, for it is in your hands – more than anyone else’s – to make sure that the nuclear taboo holds.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, said, “We must comply with existing nuclear arms control obligations and engage constructively on potential new ones. The United States is willing to engage in bilateral arms control discussions with Russia and China right now, without preconditions. All they have to do is say yes and come to the table in good faith.”
Zhang Jun, Chines Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said, “Nuclear weapons are a product of history, and the nuclear disarmament will naturally have a historical process. Demanding that countries with vastly different nuclear policies and a number of nuclear weapons should assume the same level of nuclear disarmament and nuclear transparency obligations is not consistent with the logic of history and reality, nor is in line with international consensus, and as such will only lead the international nuclear disarmament to a dead end.”
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said, “We are consistently shared the noble goal of a world free of nuclear weaponry, but at this point this goal seems to be fairly remote. This is a long-term remote prospective. Having nuclear weapons at this stage is an important factor in maintaining strategic balance. It is important to understand that appending this balance will plunge the world into endless wars and attempt to establish hegemonies by force.”
Briefing the press after the Security Council meeting, CTBTO Executive Secretary said, “The Non-Proliferation and disarmament architecture must be protected and strengthened in this current context. The CTBT has already been a great success in seeing almost the end to nuclear testing in the 27 years that the treaty has been open for signature.”
Answering a question, he said, “There is a commitment amongst even those that have nuclear weapons to a moratorium on testing. We want to keep building on that and define the pathway in geo strategic circumstances to move towards a legally binding ban on testing. And then ultimately, that as a step towards a world without nuclear weapons. Not an easy path - implied in your question - but not a path which is impossible. It's worth it.”
