President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General places nuclear disarmament among its priorities. The nuclear-armed powers are modernising their arsenals at the very moment when the treaties meant to reduce them are losing their force.
Arsenals rising again. The world holds more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, and the states that possess them are investing to renew them, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The risk of use, by calculation or by accident, has not been this high since the Cold War.
Treaties that wobble. The Non-Proliferation Treaty held together through an exchange, in which states without the weapon renounce it and states with it commit to disarm. The second half of that promise is receding, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, in force since 2021, carries the answer of the majority of nations.
The voice of states without the weapon. Most of humanity lives in countries that do not have the bomb. Africa is, under the Treaty of Pelindaba, a nuclear-weapon-free zone. These states have a direct interest in disarmament moving forward, and a legitimacy in calling for it.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General does not disarm the powers. He can keep disarmament on the agenda, support the treaties that organise it, and recall that the security of all grows as these arsenals shrink.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's data are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net