Global General

Ban pushes for progress on NPT

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-07 03:49

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday linked the horrors committed by Nazi Germany to the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

"The human cost of the Second World War was beyond calculation and beyond comprehension - 50 to 70 million people dead," he told reporters during a special session of the General Assembly to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Second World War. "With nuclear weapons, life on Earth is threatened."

The commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany comes as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference enters its fourth day, a time, Ban said, when nations are gathered to advance the cause of peace.

"I sincerely hope leaders of the world will be united while commemorating the end of the Second World War to do their utmost with a strong sense of mission and historical responsibility to realize their vision and aspiration of humankind - a world free of nuclear weapons," Ban said.

The secretary-general noted he has been seeing signs of progress at the NPT Review Conference and is confident the international community will continue to do so, "if only because we must."

"Sixty-five years ago, as the tragic Second World War drew to a close, delegations of the world gathered in San Francisco to draft the charter of the United Nations, an organization founded to end the scourge of war," he said. "The non-Proliferation Treaty is also a document of hope, a vision of nuclear weapon free world."