“The expiration of the New START Treaty, as of midnight today, marks a grave moment for international peace and security,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement released Feb. 5. “Throughout the Cold War and in its aftermath, nuclear arms control between these governments helped prevent catastrophe,” and “drastically improved the security of all peoples,” he said.
The expiration of the New START Treaty “could not come at a worse time,” he went on, because “the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades.”
Guterres then tried to sound a hopeful note, saying “This is an opportunity to reset and create an arms control regime fit for a rapidly evolving context,” and that both the presidents of the U.S. and Russia have made clear that they understand the “destabilizing impact of a nuclear arms race and the need to prevent the return to a world of unchecked nuclear proliferation.”
