On June 22, 1973
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and US President Richard Nixon signed the
Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement.
MOSCOW, June 22.
/TASS/. The risk of nuclear weapons use is still as high as it was in the years
of confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, Andrei
Bystritsky, the Chairman of the Board of the Valdai International Discussion
Club’s Development and Support Foundation, told TASS in connection with the
45th anniversary of the signing of the Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement.
Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev and US President Richard Nixon signed the document in Washington on
June 22, 1973. The agreement particularly says that the parties "agree
that an objective of their policies is to remove the danger of nuclear war and
of the use of nuclear weapons."
According to
Bystritsky, the nuclear threat has not increased since then but it hasn’t
subsided either. "I think that the overall risk level remains high - the
risk that some optional methods of using nuclear weapons may be employed
accidentally." "At the same time, [given the emergence of new nuclear
powers] some proportions of the nuclear threat have changed," he added.
The expert pointed
out that it was the reason why the agreement had continuing relevance. "As
long as there are nuclear weapons, all agreements that concern nuclear arms
will remain relevant, for we should not underestimate this great threat,"
Bystritsky said. Meanwhile, in his words, the threat of global nuclear conflict
did have some positive aspects as nuclear weapons are a most important tool to
maintain global peace. "By creating a greater threat, it [the risk of
nuclear weapons use] removed smaller threats which, however, posed no less
danger," the expert explained.
When speaking about
the prospects for the development of international agreements on reducing the
risk of a nuclear conflict, Bystritsky noted that the idea of abandoning all
global weapons sounds tempting but there was a need to be cautious about its
implementation. "It would definitely be better if there was no chance at
all that the humankind will be wiped out in an instant. However, this threat
makes it possible to deter many other risks, so it is a matter of
details," he said.
"The idea of
disarmament is not losing its appeal but in the modern world we must treat it
cautiously," the expert concluded.
Source: ITAR-TASS
23-06-2018
