Overview
- The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review meeting, now in its final stretch, faces a May 22 deadline with no clear path to adopt a consensus document.
- The latest draft, circulated late last week to ease tensions, strips out a call for nuclear-armed states to pledge no first use of nuclear weapons.
- That removal aligns with preferences of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, while China, which supports no first use, has pressed to keep the pledge in the text.
- References to expanding the now-expired U.S.–Russia New START limits to more countries were also deleted, signaling resistance to broader binding controls.
- Hiroshima Governor Mika Yokota urged delegates to keep negotiating to the end and met U.S. and Russian envoys on site, as disputes that include U.S.–Iran arguments over compliance and attacks on Iranian facilities continue to stall a deal.