UNITED NATIONS, United States, Aug 27, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Russia on Friday
prevented the adoption of a joint declaration following a four-week UN
conference on a nuclear disarmament treaty, with Moscow denouncing what it
said were "political" aspects of the text.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which 191 signatories review
every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote
complete disarmament and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear
energy.

The nations have been gathered at UN headquarters in New York since August 1
participating in a month of negotiations, including a final session that was
postponed for several hours on Friday.

In the end, the conference's president, Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina, said
it was "not in a position to achieve agreement" after Russia took issue with
the text.

Russian representative Igor Vishnevetsky said the draft final text, which was
more than 30 pages long, lacked "balance."

"Our delegation has one key objection on some paragraphs which are blatantly
political in nature," he said, adding that Russia was not the only country to
take issue with the text.

According to sources close to the negotiations, Russia was opposed in
particular to paragraphs concerning the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in
Zaporizhzhia, which is occupied by the Russian military.

The latest draft text had expressed "grave concern" over military activities
around Ukrainian power plants, including Zaporizhzhia, as well as over
Ukraine's loss of control of such sites and the negative impact on safety.

The signatories discussed a number of other hot-button topics during the
conference, including Iran's nuclear program and North Korean nuclear tests.

At the last review conference in 2015, the parties were also unable to reach
an agreement on substantive issues.

At the opening of this year's conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres warned that the world faced "a nuclear danger not seen since the
height of the Cold War."

"Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from
nuclear annihilation," Guterres said.