Thank you, Mr. Obhrai. With great respect, I would be unable to accept the use of the word “motherhood”, which you used twice in describing this work of building a nuclear weapons convention, which is at the heart of the efforts the secretary-general is employing today.
I've said that two-thirds of national governments have voted for it, the European Parliament, and Mayors for Peace. This is not a subject that is pie in the sky. It is entering the central discourse of our times.
It has reached this point because a fundamental realization has taken place in the world. First, if any one country has a nuclear weapon, other countries will want them. Second, if other countries get nuclear weapons and they spread, the risk of use goes up enormously. Finally, any use of a nuclear weapon anywhere would be a catastrophe for the world, resulting in meltdowns of many kinds of systems.
This is a moment for the world to recognize that the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be allowed to be repeated. You said start with small steps; well, we have started with small steps. There have been all sorts of steps on reductions. The comprehensive test ban treaty was negotiated and signed, and it's awaiting ratification. There's a process to start negotiations for a fissile material cut-off treaty. But those steps are not related to the end goal, and what is now very clear is that steps by themselves, without a visible intent and commitment to achieve the end result, which is the elimination of nuclear weapons under law, will not do the trick.
As a matter of fact, this use of the words “eventual nuclear disarmament after steps” is a trap. It's a trap because those who oppose nuclear disarmament, and I pay my respects to them, will always keep saying we need this step and that step and that step. Meanwhile, those who are benefiting from the sale and development of all kinds of modernization of weaponry have at their disposal enormous tools in the media and the political establishments.
The judiciary of the world, international criminal courts, the highest political systems in the world, civil society movements galore have come to one recognition, that the moment has come for the world to eliminate nuclear weapons before nuclear weapons take over the world. It's as serious as that, Mr. Obhrai. It's not motherhood.