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STORY: UN / NON-PROLIFERATION NUCLEAR WEAPONS
TRT: 03:33
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
24 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“This is a very important treaty regime. And as such, the review conference of this treaty mechanism is also really critical, and it is more critical precisely because of today's complex - and I think I can say this - extremely challenging international peace and security environment. This environment and the complexity of it, makes this particular, review conference even more important than ever.”
4. Wide shot, press room dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“I would like to really call upon all state parties to take their collective responsibility very seriously and call on them to engage in good faith and also flexibility. And I trust that all of them, I believe they are arriving over the weekend, when it comes at 10 am. on Monday morning, they are ready to exercise that collective responsibility in the framework of the NPT.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“I am not sure if there is a high ambition as such, that, you know, extremely ambitious, detailed disarmament, commitments will be forthcoming in the NPT. But I think that shared sentiment of crisis that, my God, we need to protect this regime. Otherwise, the world will suffer from even further instability and insecurity. That shared sentiment, I think, will help states parties to engage with each other.”
8. Wide shot, press room dais
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“Israel has never admitted formally or denied. but, generally speaking, it is recognised as possessing, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons, as, non-party. They're not a party to the NPT. Now in the sort of universalization paragraphs, until now, they have been called for - those states, four states, this is the factual information - by name, calling upon them to accede to NPT as non-nuclear weapon states. Those four states are Israel, India, Pakistan, and South Sudan.”
10. Wide shot, press room dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“When it comes to nuclear weapons, we are in a very, unfortunate situation where the gains of past, I mean, gains that we have made towards the end of the Cold War, by the INF treaty - which also does not exist anymore - and during the post-Cold War era disarmament gains, now really, one by one, gone. And we are beginning to see a reversal, in that trajectory.”
12. Wide shot, end of briefing
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu today (24 Apr) told reporters in New York that because of today's “extremely challenging international peace and security environment,” this year’s Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is “more important than ever.”
Nakamitsu called upon all state parties “to take their collective responsibility very seriously and call on them to engage in good faith and also flexibility.”
She said, “I am not sure if there is a high ambition as such, that, you know, extremely ambitious, detailed disarmament, commitments will be forthcoming in the NPT. But I think that shared sentiment of crisis that, my God, we need to protect this regime. Otherwise, the world will suffer from even further instability and insecurity. That shared sentiment, I think, will help states parties to engage with each other.
Taking questions from reporters, the disarmament chief said, “Israel has never admitted formally or denied. but, generally speaking, it is recognised as possessing, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons, as, non-party. They're not a party to the NPT.”
She said four states have been called upon “to accede to NPT as non-nuclear weapon states. Those four states are Israel, India, Pakistan, and South Sudan.”
When it comes to nuclear weapons, Nakamitsu said, “we are in a very, unfortunate situation where the gains of past, I mean, gains that we have made towards the end of the Cold War, by the INF treaty - which also does not exist anymore - and during the post-Cold War era disarmament gains, now really, one by one, gone. And we are beginning to see a reversal, in that trajectory.”
The 11th NPT Review Conference is set to take place from 27 April to 22 May 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. This conference will bring together representatives from 191 states-parties to assess the implementation of the NPT and seek agreement on a final document that outlines action steps to advance its core principles and objectives.
The conference will address various challenges and issues, including the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.
