MEPs bury the international treaty against nuclear testing

2023-10-17 14:12:00

A vote which raises fears of the resumption of the nuclear arms race. This Tuesday, theRussian deputies approved at first reading the revocation of the ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). A vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin called for, and which is also a response to the fact that the United States has never ratified this text.

During the vote in the lower house of the Russian Parliament, 412 deputies, i.e. all of the elected officials present, said they were in favor of revoking the ratification, submitted since 2000 to Moscow.

“Defend” Russian citizens

Shortly before the vote, the speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, assured that this ratification had to be revoked for “ defend » Russian citizens and maintain « global strategic parity ». « Washington must understand once and for all that their hegemony will lead to nothing good “, did he declare.

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Previously, he had affirmed that this revocation was linked to the “ guerre » triggered, according to him, by Washington and Brussels once morest Russia. “ Current challenges demand new solutions “, he declared.

Fears over the resumption of nuclear testing

This revocation raises fears of new nuclear tests, even if Vladimir Putin has always refused to say whether Russia intended to resume these maneuvers. Since the breakup of the USSR, Russia has no longer conducted exercises of this type, its last dating back to 1990 (while the United States stopped them in 1992).

But the country regularly praises the quality of its new missiles with nuclear warheads. Rhetoric consistent with President Putin’s attitude since the start of this conflict: blowing hot and cold regarding the use of nuclear weapons. For many observers, this vote is a new step backwards in terms of the non-proliferation of the military atom, once morest the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine and the diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West.

Vladimir Putin at work

Since the start of his assault on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has dealt several blows to the nuclear non-proliferation regime. In the summer of 2023, it began deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, its closest ally and a country that served as a beachhead for Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

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In February, Russia suspended its participation in the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty signed with the United States in 2010, the last bilateral agreement linking Russians and Americans. The head of state then accused the West of wanting to inflict “ a strategic defeat » in Moscow, Ukraine. This decision was denounced in unison by Western powers, with American President Joe Biden seeing it as “ a serious mistake ».

A major treaty… which has not yet entered into force

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was opened for signature in 1996, but it never entered into force because it was not ratified – a necessary step for its entry into force – by a sufficient number of States, among the 44 countries which held nuclear installations at the time of its creation. Ratification is the act by which a State indicates its consent to be bound by a treaty.

Russia, France and the United Kingdom have done so, but this is not the case for five states which have signed it: the United States, China, Iran, Egypt and Israel. Three other countries, India, Pakistan and North Korea, have neither signed nor ratified it. As a reminder, Russia, heir to Soviet nuclear power, and the United States between them hold nearly 90% of all existing nuclear weapons.

Russian President visits his Chinese counterpart

Russian President Vladimir Putin was welcomed this Tuesday by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the occasion of the summit of New Silk Roads » in Beijing. “ President Xi Jinping greeted President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival, the two leaders had a brief conversation », indicated Russian diplomacy, in a message published on X (formerly Twitter).

The Russian president is making his first trip to a major world power since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which helped isolate Russia from many other states. In mid-March of this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the head of the Russian Federation for “ war crime of illegal deportation » of Ukrainian children. If this decision has no ” legal basis » for the Russian authorities, non-members of the ICC, it actually hinders Putin in his travels abroad.

(With AFP)