KUALA LUMPUR (August 8): The United Nations cautioned that A new arms race is picking up speed, with governments spending hundreds of billions of dollars to upgrade their stockpiles of nuclear arms.

In an op-ed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres titled "My Message from Hiroshima" on Sunday (Aug 7), he said almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now held in arsenals around the world.

“Geopolitical crises with grave nuclear undertones are spreading fast, from the Middle East, to the Korean peninsula, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Once again, humanity is playing with a loaded gun. We are one mistake, one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from Armageddon.

“Leaders must stop knocking on doomsday’s door and take the nuclear option off the table for good,” said Guterres.

He stressed it was unacceptable for states in possession of nuclear weapons to admit the possibility of nuclear war.

“By the same token, countries with nuclear weapons must commit to the “no first use” of those weapons.

“They must also assure States that do not have nuclear weapons that they will not use — or threaten to use — nuclear weapons against them, and be transparent throughout,” he said.

Nuclear saber-rattling must stop

Guterres  sajd that in the end, there was only one solution to the nuclear threat: not to have nuclear weapons at all.

“This means opening every avenue of dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation to ease tensions and eliminate these deadly weapons of mass destruction.

“We can no longer accept the presence of weapons that hang by a slender thread over humanity’s future.

‘It is time to proliferate peace,” he said.