by Lucy-Claire Saunders
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), one of the most widely ratified treaties in the world but in worse shape than ever. And while the upcoming review conference in New York holds the opportunity to build international support, don't expect miracles, say experts.
"Forty years after the Non-Proliferation Treaty came into force, nuclear weapons and the means to produce them are still spreading, and the promise of disarmament is unfulfilled," said Tim Wright, a spokesperson from the United Nations office of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which advocates for a legally binding and verifiable treaty banning the development and use of nuclear weapons.
The NPT, which has 189 signatories, forbids parties from acquiring nuclear weapons and imposes an obligation on the five original nuclear-weapon parties -- the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China -- to fully disarm.
But with more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, many of them on hair-trigger alert, and certain countries vying to become nuclear power states, faith in the NPT is at an all-time low, say experts, such as Michael Lekson, the vice-president of education and training at the United Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan institution funded by Congress.
"We are in the worse shape than ever before," he told a group of experts and diplomats last week during a conference on nuclear weapons and international law at Fordham Law School in New York.
All countries except India, Israel, and Pakistan have joined the Treaty, although in 2003 the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) withdrew from the treaty, which it demonstrated with nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Meanwhile, the five original nuclear-weapon states have shown no sign of abandoning their policy of nuclear deterrence.
