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To: Diplomats Negotiating in the United Nations First Committee
Re: Reducing the Risk of Nuclear Weapons Use
Please accept this brief memo regarding the inclusion of relevant language in appropriate resolutions addressing nuclear weapons arising from deliberations of the First Committee of this 78th Session of the General Assembly.
It is significant and laudable that a group of nations that included several possessing nuclear weapons agreed as follows:
"It is essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability. This includes defending all the Purposes and Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure in armed conflicts. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue are vital. Today’s era must not be of war." — Group of Twenty (G20) 2022 Bali Summit Declaration
An essential part of the statement was reiterated recently in the Declaration of the G20 Summit in Delhi, September 2023, which included an eight-paragraph section — "For the Planet, People, Peace, and Prosperity" — which reiterated, inter alia, all the points in Bali Paragraph 4, including, unaltered, the eleven-word sentence: “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”
This truism is relevant and makes the use of these devices less likely. Nothing could be more important. It is consistent with the formal statement of the leaders of the nuclear weapons states on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races of January 2022: We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
The reiteration of the formal statement from the 1985 Geneva Summit of Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev remains relevant, as will the reiteration of the aforementioned statement. Thus, we urge inclusion of the statement from the G20 deliberations in appropriate resolutions arising from the First Committee of the United Nations.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Granoff
President, Global Security Institute
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