United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for greater political will to launch global talks aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons. Speaking at the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Ban said, “There are now a number of initiatives from nuclear and non-nuclear states that together provide a new momentum for disarmament.” He added that a draft proposal to start negotiations on fissile material “can achieve consensus.” The Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty is a proposed international treaty to prohibit further production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. But, for talks to succeed, Ban said there would need to be a “new multilateralism where cooperation replaces confrontation, where creativity replaces stalemate.”
