Foreign ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have called for new, verifiable arms control mechanisms to prevent a nuclear arms race, warning that international disarmament efforts are losing ground, reports The Times of Central Asia.
In a joint statement issued on Sep. 8 to mark 20 years since the signing of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, the five governments expressed concern over stalled disarmament, the end of key agreements, and the modernisation of nuclear arsenals. They urged nuclear powers to resume negotiations.
The statement comes seven months after New START, the last US-Russian strategic nuclear arms treaty, expired on Feb. 5. UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres said its expiration left the two countries without binding limits on their strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.
President Donald Trump has criticised New START as a ‘badly negotiated deal’ and called instead for a new, modernised arms control treaty that would include China.
The ministers also cited the failure of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which ended without a consensus outcome on May 22.
Kazakhstan had already advanced a similar position. As TCA reported, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used the Aug. 29 anniversary of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site’s closure to call for negotiations among nuclear powers.