Central Asian nations highlight need for disarmament during UN debate

Disarmament can serve to boost trust and understanding among the world’s nations, the leader of Turkmenistan told the General Assembly today, emphasizing that there can be no return to a Cold War-style global structure under which armament build-up was paramount.

Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have highlighted the importance of disarmament at the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate today, with Central Asia having recently been declared the Northern Hemisphere’s first-ever nuclear-weapons-free zone.

In March, the treaty underpinning the establishment of the zone went into effect, with all five Central Asian nations – including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan – having ratified the pact.

It also covers an area where nuclear weapons previously existed. Kazakhstan, which endured more than 400 atomic blasts at the Semipalatinsk testing ground in the country’s north, previously had the fourth largest nuclear weapon arsenal in the world, but renounced its arsenal after gaining independence.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan told the 192-member Assembly that disarmament can serve to boost trust and understanding among the world’s nations, emphasizing that there can be no return to a Cold War-style global structure under which armament build-up was paramount.

Reductions of weapons arsenals and counteracting their distribution remains one of the top issues on the global agenda, he said.

There is no space in the current international system for Cold War-type arrangements where the “quantity and quality of armaments were almost the main criteria of influence and authority of States,” Mr. Berdimuhamedov emphasized.

“We are convinced: the less armaments in the world, the more stable and quiet would be its development, the more trust and understanding [there] would be among the countries and peoples,” he told dozens of heads of State and government gathered in New York.

He also proposed that an international conference, under UN auspices, be held on disarmament in Central Asia and the Caspian basin.

For his part, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan voiced hope that next year’s Review Conference of the UN-backed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which forms the foundation of the world’s nuclear non-proliferation regime, will bring the world closer to realizing the goals laid out in the pact.

“We are convinced that the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zones is equally important both at the regional and global levels,” he stated.

Mr. Rahmon’s speech also covered climate change, which he said is a major source of concern for Tajikistan.

Over 90 per cent of the country is covered by mountains, and it has witnessed the total area of its glaciers – which, along with snowcaps, are the main source of water for Tajikistan – diminish by one third since 1930, he said.

At the same time, the Tajik leader said that demographic growth and the expansion of irrigated land has increased water consumption, putting further pressure on demand for water.