Secretary Clinton on Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Conference held at the United Nations. As part of the “irreversible, transparent and verifiable steps” to reduce its nuclear arms, she announced that the U.S. will publicize the number of weapons in its nuclear arsenal. She also responded to Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s remarks from earlier in the day, saying that Iran has failed to meet its responsibility and is in noncompliance with U.N. safeguard obligations.

The objective of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The NPT represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon states. close