UN secretary warns of risk of nuclear war: ‘We’ve been lucky so far’

António Guterres said that geopolitics follows the biggest escalation in the chances of a nuclear annihilation ‘since the height of the Cold War’

ANGELA WEISS / AFP – 08/01/2022
António Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United Nations

The secretary general of United Nations Organization (UN), Antonio Guterres, warned this Monday, 1st, for the possibility of the world getting involved in a nuclear war. According to the politician, humanity is “a miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation” and that geopolitics has not followed an increase in the probability of a conflict with nuclear weapons “since the height of the Cold War”. “We have had extraordinary luck so far, but luck is neither a strategy nor a shield to prevent geopolitical tensions from degenerating into nuclear conflict,” he argued.

Guterres also highlighted the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) – on August 26, the UN will host the 10th NPT review conference. According to the secretary, it is an “opportunity to reinforce this treaty and adapt it to today’s world”. “Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee that they will never be used. Some 13,000 nuclear weapons are in the world’s arsenals at a time when proliferation risks increase and safeguards to prevent this escalation weaken,” he said.