The P5 pledge to avoid nuclear war should be celebrated

This was likely in response to the efforts of the Stockholm initiative for Nuclear Disarmament, which was launched in 2019 by 16 non-nuclear-weapon states with the aim of promoting “a successful outcome of the 10th Review Conference of the NPT through building political support for a pragmatic and result-oriented nuclear disarmament agenda”. [...] In 2020, to mark the 50th anniversary of the NPT, members of the Stockholm Initiative adopted a set of proposals or “stepping stones” that aim to minimise the risk of nuclear weapon use, mainly through declaratory commitments. [...] The September 2021 AUKUS security pact between the US, the UK and Australia, as part of which the Australian military will acquire nuclear-powered submarines, has also set a troubling precedent for the future of the non-proliferation regime. [...] The nuclear-weapons states’ lack of appetite for disarmament had already come in to sharp focus when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which seeks a comprehensive and unambiguous ban on the development and possession of nuclear weapons, entered into force in January 2021. [...] The recent failures of the NPT, including its members’ inability to adopt a common set of recommendations for the 2020 RevCon at the 2019 PrepCom, the demise of important arms control agreements such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and the Open Skies Treaty,, and growing tensions between the US and Russia, as well as the US and China have left many advocates of nuclear disarm.