The United States will begin dismantling its retired nuclear warheads at a 20 percent faster rate, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday at the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York.
"I am pleased to announce today that President Obama has decided that the United States will seek to accelerate the dismantling of retired nuclear warheads by 20 percent," Kerry said.
"We are committed to working with you to prove the skeptics wrong over time," Kerry told the conference, referring to critics who say that the U.S. doesn't do enough to accelerate global disarmament.
"No one in this chamber thinks that this is going to be easy. We're talking about weapons that have been a hugely important factor in the global system of defense and deterrence for decades, and to eliminate them completely will require a new way of thinking," Kerry said. "But we know it's possible to think that way. We know it's possible to act that way. And when major figures in multiple countries have come together to suggest that we can think about this differently, then we need to think about this differently, and we have a clear responsibility to pursue this goal."
The U.S. has dismantled 10,251 warheads in the past 20 years, and an additional 2,500 have been retired or are ready to be destroyed, Kerry said.
But in September, the U.S. announced that it would spend $1 trillion over the next three decades to revamp its nuclear arsenal. The administration reportedly told the Pentagon to "plan for 12 new missile submarines, up to 100 new bombers and 400 land-based missiles, either new or refurbished," as well as significant upgrades to eight nuclear facilities, according to The New York Times.
As Obama's top nuclear adviser in his first term told the Times, "Putin's invasion of Ukraine has made any measure to reduce the stockpile unilaterally politically impossible."
Then you have to consider, according to the Times, China "pressing its own territorial claims and Pakistan expanding its arsenal."
"The overall chances for Mr. Obama's legacy of disarmament look increasingly dim," said the Times. "Congress has expressed less interest in atomic reductions than looking tough in Washington's escalating confrontation with Moscow."
The original plan supposedly involved a "modest rebuilding" of the nation's aging weapons and delivery systems, but due to "political deals and geopolitical crisis" things have shifted into a more extensive rebuilding of atomic weaponry, which will somehow enable the long-term reduction of nuclear arms and put the U.S. back on the path to fulfilling Obama's vision for a nuclear-free world.
Nonetheless, on Monday, Kerry called for both Russia and North Korea to adhere to the laid out nuclear disarmament obligations.
The first step in the plan to rid the world of nukes is to negotiate a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty involving initiatives for future arms control agreements, Kerry said. The second is to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
"This zone is a hugely ambitious goal and fraught with challenges, but ambitious goals are always the ones worth pursuing," Kerry said. "We support the regional efforts underway to reach agreement on terms for a conference, and those terms must be shared by all - there is no prospect for engagement or agreement absent the consent of the states involved. And this principle needs to be observed and respected if a process is really to start. And if that's the case, I guarantee you the effort will have the full support of the United States."
The third pillar, Kerry said, is to "expand the peaceful uses of the atom."
And with that, Kerry announced an additional $50 million contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Peaceful Uses Initiative. The U.S. has provided some $200 million since the last conference in 2010.
"These resources will further expand global access to the peaceful atom, putting it to use for sustainable economic development," Kerry said.
Any step towards peace has to not only be towards disarmament, but also towards development and innovation, he said.
"We are promoting food security by improving the detection of animal diseases in Africa and expanding food safety measures in Latin America," Kerry said. "We are advancing human health by advancing early detection capabilities for Ebola in Africa and strengthening the capacity to detect and treat cancer around the world. And we are protecting the future of our planet by tracing pollution in marine waters, documenting the impacts of climate change, and reducing our climate emissions."
