By Unfold Zero
On November 17, 2022, the G20 Leaders meeting in Bali (including leaders or foreign ministers of China, France, India, Russia, UK and USA) surprised the world by agreeing that “The threat of use or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible,” and including this agreement in the G20 Bali Leaders Statement.
This agreement arose from concerns on all sides about the potential for the Russia/Ukraine war to escalate into a nuclear war between Russia and the West. It indicates a possible breakthrough in consolidating a general norm against the use of nuclear weapons that is now accepted, at least on paper, by the main nuclear weapon states.
However, it is uncertain how solid is this norm, whether or not it will be re-affirmed in the upcoming G7 Summit in Hiroshima (May 19-21) and the G20 Summit in Delhi (September 9-10), and whether or not it will have any real impact on policies and practices of the nuclear-armed states, including nuclear-first-use options.
In order to consolidate the norm of non-use of nuclear weapons, and help shift this to accepted law, NoFirstUse Global invites you to endorse Nuclear Taboo: From Norm to Law – a Declaration of Public Conscience, and will use the endorsed Declaration in key advocacy.