Kazakhstan govt advocates for a world free from nuclear weapons

While the entire world has been grappling with Coronavirus and its related issues, the fear of nuclear war looms at large. The reason behind the same is the growing tension between the US and China, the West Asian region is still highly fraught and the relations between Russia and the other western nations are still pugnacious. According to the Federation of American Scientists, about nine countries at present have almost 13,410 nuclear warheads, and it has been assumed that 1800 nuclear weapons at present are available for use immediately, which can destroy the planet several times. 

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To lessen, if not reduce the threat of a nuclear war over the planet completely, the government of Kazakhstan has decided to advocate for nuclear disarmament for a planet that shall be totally free from nuclear weapons. The reason behind why the government has been taking initiatives over the same is because no other country has suffered more than them when it comes to nuclear testing. 

The country was also one of the signatories to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1993 and the consecutive Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the year 1996, and ratified it in the year 2001. 

What are these treaties all about ?

The treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was an agreement which aimed at preventing the nuclear weapons from spreading and further advocating the usage of nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes. The treaty came into force in the year 1970 and in the year 1995, the treaty was extended indefinitely. The treaty has occupied an important place in the global non-proliferation and has been the guiding force for nuclear disarmament. 

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The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, is an agreement which was brokered by the United Nations, and had come into existence on 24 September 1996. The pact, aimed at banning all kinds of nuclear explosions on the entire planet. The agreement also aimed at curbing the development of nuclear weapons and improves the design of the nuclear weapons that are already in existence.  The treaty also aims to reduce the suffering of human beings and any damage that might cause to the environment because of the same. 

Advocacy activities taken by the government of Kazakhstan earlier

In the year 2009, the nations and their neighbors had created a zone in the Central Asian region that would be free of nuclear weapons and has constantly urged to create a similar space in West Asia as well. Subsequently, in the year 2012, the government of Kazakhstan had launched Abolish Testing Our Mission(ATOM), wherein the nation would be motivating other nations against the testing of nuclear weapons.

Recently, in 2015, an agreement was signed between the government of Kazakhstan and International Atomic Energy Association(IAEA). The treaty aimed at creating a Uranium bank, which would be solving the problem of supplying the fuel to all the nations for civil purposes. 

Nursultan Nazarbayev,the first President of Kazakhstan, said that the nation is committed to make a world free of any nuclear weapons by the year 2045.

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(With Agency Inputs)