New York, March 28 (QNA) – US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced that the United States and almost 40 other nations would not participate in the first-ever talks on an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
Nikki Haley said that the world wants a world with no nuclear weapons. “But we have to be realistic,” she said pointing that some nations will not commit to a ban on nuclear weapons. “Is there anyone that believes that North Korea would agree to a ban on nuclear weapons?” Haley asked.
According to (CNN) former US President Barack Obama’s administration also opposed the talks, which the General Assembly voted to approve in December.
Nuclear powers Russia and China also are not taking part in the talks. Meanwhile, UK Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said his country also would not attend the talks because “we do not believe that those negotiations will lead to effective progress on global nuclear disarmament.”
Backers of the treaty on the ban nuclear weapons criticized the boycott and called it “an unhelpful distraction.”
The treaty aims to outlaw the use, possession and development of nuclear weapons, and its supporters say the risk of a nuclear detonation are higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War. (QNA)
