Central Asian countries call on Washington to give assurances that nuclear weapons will not be used against them

Central Asia is the only nuclear-free zone in the northern hemisphere. This was recalled by the head of the Kazakhstan delegation Yerjan Ashikbayev at the III preparatory session of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference, which will be held in 2020. He urged the United States to formalize the promise not to use nuclear weapons against his country.

Yerjan Ashikbayev spoke on behalf of a group of member-countries to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, known as the Semipalatinsk Treaty. He recalled that this year the region celebrates 10 years since the entry into force of the Treaty.

As the acting coordinator of the Central Asian zone, the head of the Kazakhstan delegation called on the United States to speed up the ratification of the Protocol on Negative Guarantees to the Semipalatinsk Treaty - guarantees of non-use of nuclear weapons. He expressed the hope that new nuclear-free zones would be created in the world.

The representative of Kazakhstan announced that on May 3, at the initiative of his delegation, a special event will be held on cooperation between the countries of the non-nuclear zones.

The Treaty on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia was signed in September 2006 in Semipalatinsk by the ministers of foreign affairs of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It entered into force in 2009.

The current session is devoted to the preparation of the Conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).  The treaty was signed on July 1, 1968 by 59 states simultaneously in Moscow, Washington and London, and entered into force in 1970. The NPT secured the status of the nuclear powers for five states (Great Britain, the USA, China, the USSR and France) and was intended to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons.  

At present, India, Pakistan and Israel remain outside the Treaty. Israel as a condition for accession to the NPT puts forward a general settlement of the crisis in the Middle East. India and Pakistan are considering joining the NPT exclusively as nuclear-weapon States.