Regional Actors Should Use Creative Cooperation to Tackle Emerging Weapons Threats from Terrorists, Cyberattackers, Secretary-General Tells NATO Conference

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Kim Won-soo, Under-Secretary-General United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, to the annual North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction Arms Control, Disarmament and Non‑Proliferation, in Ljubljana today:

I am pleased to greet the annual NATO Conference on disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control.  The United Nations attaches great importance to its invaluable partnerships with NATO and other regional organizations and arrangements across the world.  These groupings are many and various, from the Organisation for Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], to, of course, NATO.

NATO, as a regional collective security institution, continues to have an essential role to play in disarmament and arms control efforts, both regionally and globally.  I encourage NATO to enhance its engagement in this area and work together with regional countries to reduce tension, build confidence and advance constructive dialogue.

The United Nations welcomes NATO’s commitment to our shared goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, as expressed through your declaration in 2012.  Beyond traditional security threats, the world faces new threats that NATO is well placed to help address.  Cyber and outer space represent new military frontiers where developments threaten to outpace our response capacities.  Emerging technologies, such as autonomous weapons and ever more sophisticated missiles, are similarly challenging to collective security.

Threats are especially acute where such hazards intersect.  The nexus between chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, cybersecurity and terrorism is a case in point.  We need to cooperate with agility and creativity to respond to these twenty-first century concerns, just as we continue to strive for shared solutions to the security dilemmas we inherited from the twentieth century.

The United Nations looks forward to working with important security institutions such as NATO to achieve our shared goals of security and peace.