Disarmament

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to for the International Day for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Awareness, observed on 5 March:

​​​​​​​The latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is dangerously heightening tensions in the region, a United Nations senior official stressed as he briefed the Security Council today, urging it to show unity in bringing Pyongyang back into dialogue to end its escalating weapons programme.

The General Assembly adopted five consensus resolutions today on Africa’s development and durable peace across the continent, sustainable development, global health and chemical weapons, with the latter surviving a challenge by a competing resolution put forth by the Russian Federation, which also issued a litany of amendments to the text.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Syria must fully cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to close all outstanding issues related to its declaration, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today during its monthly briefing on the implementation of resolution 2118 (2013) on the elimination of the country’s chemical weapons programme, highlighting that long-standing gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies remain unresolved.

Today, two inter-agency convoys, facilitated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, delivered medicine, emergency shelter kits, blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene kits and solar lamps to 5,000 residents in two towns in the southern Khersonska oblast that had been heavily impacted by fighting.

Warning that the opportunity for diplomacy is waning, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today that all parties must resolve outstanding issues relating to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to preserve gains made to date, as members diverged on whether the United States or Iran is to blame for stalled negotiations on the nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the first meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons, in Hiroshima today:

States must apply effective arms-control measures to prevent the diversion of weapons supplied to Ukraine, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as some Council members defended their decision to continue providing military support to Kyiv while others detailed the danger of doing so.