NEW YORK, OCT. 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Military spending worldwide is on the rise, while disarmament and non-proliferation agreements stalemate, warns the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations.
Speaking on general and complete disarmament at the First Commission of the U.N. General Assembly last week, Archbishop Celestino Migliore expressed disappointment that more specific resolutions were not passed at the summit for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, nor were any substantial resolutions made at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May.
While such resolutions remain in deadlock, “nuclear weapons are becoming a permanent feature of some military doctrines,” said the archbishop.
“There has been a dramatic 20% increase in world military spending in the past two years,” he added.
“It is disappointing,” continued the Holy See official, “that the principles and progress of disarmament are being weakened both by the reluctance of some to disarm and by the unwillingness of others publicly to take to task such an attitude.
“The Holy See reasserts the importance of arms control and disarmament, which are fundamental pillars of the architecture for peace.”
He added: “The ‘we the peoples’ of the United Nations, as the Charter so eloquently refers to humanity, deserve to be free from the scourge of self destruction.”
