UN Secretary General warns of ‘grave moment’ as the new START treaty expires plus Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal extended for 2026

Posted: 17th February 2026

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UN Secretary General warns of ‘grave moment’ as the new START treaty expires
plus
Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal extended for 2026

and upcoming events:

Mar 1: 24-hour World Futures Day conversation
Mar 5: From nuclear sharing (Belarus & NATO) to a European NWFZ

Dear Peter Gloyns, 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the expiration of the New START treaty represents a “grave moment” for international peace and security, as binding limits on US and Russian strategic nuclear weapons fall away amid heightened global tensions.

In a statement issued as the treaty expired on February 5, he said the world was entering uncharted territory, with no remaining legally binding constraints on the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Russia – the two countries that together hold the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons.

He urged the Russian Federation and the United States to return to negotiations “without delay” and to agree on a successor framework that restores verifiable limits, reduces risks and strengthens global security.

Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal extended for 2026
Call to endorse

September 26 has been declared by the UN General Assembly as the International Day for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day).
Every year on this date, the UN holds a high-level meeting of world leaders to discuss “urgent and effective measures” to achieve global nuclear disarmament. At the same time, civil society organizations organize events and undertake actions to support nuclear weapons abolition.

In 2025, for the first time, civil society organizations from around the world joined together to establish a common platform and joint actions for Nuclear Abolition Day. These included a social media action Stop Nuclear Weapons: Peace is in our Hands and an Appeal that was endorsed by over 600 organizations and more than 1200 additional individuals from 99 countries, and presented to the high-level plenary on September 26.

This civil society cooperation was so successful that the Nuclear Abolition Day core team has decided to repeat the actions in 2026. The Appeal has been re-opened for endorsement, with the plan to present it to the NPT Review Conference in April and again to the UN High-Level Meeting in September.

We encourage you to endorse the appeal, if you have not already done so, and to circulate it to your colleagues inviting them to also endorse.

Mar 1: Nuclear Remembrance Day and World Futures Day

Join the global 24-hour World Futures Day conversation

March 1 is Nuclear Remembrance Day, the 72nd anniversary of the Bravo nuclear weapons test undertaken by the United States in the Marshall Islands.

The Bravo nuclear detonation had an explosive yield of 15 megatons—1,000 times that of the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima and nearly three times the six megatons that its planners estimated. The detonation vaporized some ten million tons of sand, coral and water that turned into a 100-mile-wide fallout cloud spewing radioactive debris on the inhabitants of Marshall Island atolls.

The radioactive fallout has had – and continues to have – a devastating trans-generational impact on the health and wellbeing of the Marshallese people, causing high rates of cancers, still-births, congenital defects and other health disorders. Evidence presented by the Marshall Islands to the international Court of Justice in 1995, led the court to conclude that “The destructive impact of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in either space or time.”

March 1 is also World Futures Day. Every year on this day, The Millennium Project and five other international foresight organizations organize a global 24-hour conversation on humanity’s potential futures.

We encourage you to join the 2026 World Futures Day conversation, highlight the fact that March 1 is also Nuclear Remembrance Day, and encourage participants to support a nuclear-weapon-free future. An easy action for participants is to endorse the Appeal for Nuclear Abolition Day.

From nuclear sharing (Belarus and NATO) to a European Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

Online event. Thursday March 5.
11am-12:30pm Eastern Time USA / 5pm-6:30pm Central Europe Time

The risks of a nuclear war by accident, miscalculation or intent have increased with various escalatory actions, including the deployment by Russia of nuclear weapons to Belarus and the lapse of the New START treaty.

On March 5, Abolition 2000 is hosting an online discussion on nuclear deterrence in Europe, nuclear sharing and the proposal for a European NWFZ.

The NWFZ proposal addresses the fact that most European countries rely on nuclear deterrence – through extended nuclear deterrence relationships. The proposal, inspired by the models of other NWFZs, does not call for states to unilaterally relinquish nuclear deterrence, but to do it mutually with others in the region. These are combined with security guarantees from the nuclear-armed states to respect the territorial integrity of States Parties to the NWFZ and to commit not to threatening or using nuclear weapons against them.

The event is held in conjunction with Nuclear Remembrance Day (the anniversary of the Bravo nuclear weapons test on Mar 1) and the anniversary on February 27 of the controversial revision of the Belarus constitution (rescinding the ban on nuclear weapons in Belarus).

It will draw from a submission to the UN Human Rights Council in November 2025 on the nuclear weapons policies of Belarus, and will also include the launch of a transnational Marathon for nuclear Abolition and Peace (MAP).Register for From nuclear sharing to a NWFZYours sincerely
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