UN Chief Warns: No Nuclear Limits for First Time in Over 50 Years
"The United States and the Russian Federation must negotiate a successor framework to New START," Guterres told a UN General Assembly plenary meeting marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
Guterres said the treaty's expiry earlier this year has left strategic nuclear arsenals without binding limits for the first time in more than 50 years.
“This undermines not only the security of those who possess nuclear weapons, but the entire international community," he said.
New START was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, by the United States and Russia and took effect on Feb. 5, 2011, according to the US-based Arms Control Association. It succeeded the 1991 START I treaty, which lapsed in December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which ended once New START came into force.
Guterres cautioned that nuclear powers are enlarging and modernizing their stockpiles while new technology heightens the danger of error and miscalculation.
"Nuclear arsenals are being expanded and modernized. The rattling of nuclear sabers is growing louder. Advances in technology are increasing the odds of mistake and miscalculation," he said.
He also cited two recent setbacks: the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons ended without a substantive consensus, and the UN Disarmament Commission could not produce substantive recommendations in its latest three-year cycle.
"These are not simply diplomatic disappointments — they are warning signs. And the lights are flashing red," Guterres said.
He described nuclear disarmament as "a binding legal obligation" under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and called on all nuclear-weapon states to scale back the role of such weapons in their security doctrines through transparent, confidence-building measures.
UN General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman said the world held more than 12,000 nuclear warheads as of January 2026, and that between 2,100 and 2,200 of them are on high operational alert, mounted on ballistic missiles that can be launched at very short notice.
"For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the global stockpile is expected to grow again, as new and more modern warheads enter arsenals faster than retired ones are dismantled," Rahman said.
Global military spending climbed to nearly $3 trillion in 2025, he noted, the 11th straight annual increase.
"As long as nuclear weapons exist, the danger of their use by design, by accident, or by miscalculation, will remain," Rahman said.
Rahman called the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons "the cornerstone" of international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear arms and advance disarmament.
"Let us eliminate the weapons, and let us restore trust by building a world free from nuclear weapons," he said.
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