国际英语资讯:UNs Guterres urges new vision for arms control_时事

国际英语资讯:UNs Guterres urges new vision for arms control

GENEVA, Feb. 25 -- The continued use of chemical weapons with impunity is driving "new proliferation," and a new vision of arms control is needed, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned here on Monday.

Guterres said at the opening of the UN Conference on Disarmament here that arms control is one of his highest priorities and warned that the situation is particularly dangerous as regards nuclear weapons.

Should it be allowed to happen, the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, would make the world a more insecure and unstable place, he said.

国际英语资讯:UNs Guterres urges new vision for arms control1

"That insecurity and instability will be keenly felt here in Europe. And we simply cannot afford to return to the unrestrained nuclear competition of the darkest days of the Cold War," said Guterres.

He called on the parties to the INF Treaty to use the time remaining to engage in sincere dialogue on the various related issues as the preservation of the treaty is "very important."

Guterres also said, "I also call on the United States and the Russian Federation to extend the so-called 'New START' Treaty before it expires in 2021.

New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is a nuclear arms reduction treaty signed by the U.S. and Russia in 2010.

"This treaty is the only international legal instrument limiting the size of the world's two largest nuclear arsenals, and its inspection provisions represent an important confidence-building set of measures that benefit the entire world," said the UN chief.