Working for a nuclear weapon free world

A conference titled “Nuclear Dilemmas: Present & Future” has being organized in The Hague on Tuesday to address nuclear issues, including the current status of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The event is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan closing the main Soviet nuclear test site on their territory and the complete renunciation of Kazakhstan’s nuclear arsenal, which was once the fourth largest in the world.

“Kazakhstan had 1000 nuclear warheads, with the TNT equivalent of 1 megaton each,” said Roman Vassilenko, an Adviser to the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.

“We call on the world to look closely at Kazakhstan’s example…the country that made a nuclear weapon-free choice,” he told Vatican Radio. “A country which...in the 20 years of its existence as an independent state has proven you can live without nuclear weapons, and you can indeed prosper and you can better ensure you security if you do not have nuclear weapons. That’s a message we are never shy to deliver, either to Iran or to North Korea, and to the recognized nuclear weapon states.”

He said the world needs to work towards the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.

“It sounds utopian – the goal of building a nuclear weapon free world – but we think if you don’t strive for that goal, you will never reach that goal, and you will never even get closer to it,” he said.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Roman Vassilenko: