OUR WORLD became a little safer and a touch more mature yesterday when presidents Obama and Medvedev signed a deal to cut their nuclear arsenals by about 30 per cent to 1,550 warheads each. As the US and Soviet arsenals amounted to some 21,000 warheads 20 years ago, the continuing decrease is welcome news.
Leaders from 46 countries will meet in Washington next week for a nuclear security summit, and the review meeting of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will follow shortly afterwards. The planet’s other nuclear powers – China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and Britain with their 1,300 warheads – now face markedly greater pressure to cut their arsenals.
Many dismissed the historic call for a world free of nuclear weapons Obama made in Prague last April. Careful reflection and constructive negotiations have now brought the achievement of such a world that little bit closer.
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