Diplomats say Russia stymied a nuclear nonproliferation conference

Russia blocked the adoption of a joint statement to close out a United Nations conference on an ongoing nuclear arms treaty, Western officials said, a diplomatic broadside that underscored the global ramifications of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow’s representatives at the monthlong conference objected to language in the agreement that raised concerns about Ukraine, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.

The monthlong conference — on upholding and strengthening the 50-year-old global Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons — is held every five years and had once been seen as a chance to deal with loopholes that have allowed a resurgence in the spread of nuclear weapons.

Expectations for breakthroughs were low. The last conference also failed to result in a consensus document.

A high-ranking Russian diplomat in Moscow’s delegation, Andrey Belousov, blamed the lack of agreement on efforts by other nations to use the document “to settle scores with Russia, raising topics that are not directly related to the treaty.”

“The conference has become a political hostage to those states that over the last four weeks poisoned discussions with their politicized, biased, groundless and false statements with regard to Ukraine,” Belousov said in a statement at the close of the session.

Western officials immediately slammed Russia for throwing a wrench in the proceedings, which early on had included discussions on the threat of a nuclear confrontation or a nuclear accident emerging from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia obstructed progress by refusing to compromise on proposed text accepted by all other states,” Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, wrote on Twitter.

The conference was taking place after a two-year delay because of the COVID pandemic. High-level representatives from member states, including the prime minister of Japan, the U.S. Secretary of State and dozens of foreign ministers and delegations, attended.