"It's not only you and me, it's us"
It was a great day for international security with many important messages sent to the peoples.
On April 27th, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon paid one of his rare visits to the UN Headquarter in Vienna. He joined a panel discussion hosted by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) commemorating its foundation in 1996. The panel also featured Kim Won-soo (UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs), Michael Spindelegger (former Vice Chancellor, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance of Austria), Susan le Jeune D’Allegeershecque (Permanent Representative of the UK to the UN Vienna and member of the CTBT Group of Eminent Persons) and Lassina Zerbo (CTBTO Executive Secretary). Despite the elite character of the event with many Excellencies present, the room was dominated by young students from all over the world - a strong signal, a beautiful gesture.
During the conference there were some remarkable moments: 1st When discussing the position of the US, the US Ambassador surprisingly took the chance to contribute something: He stressed how appreciative the US were of the CTBT and also denied rumors about the modernization of US nuclear weapons. Following his speech, the Chinese Ambassador agreed with his colleague from America on the high importance of the CTBT for both nations but still pointed out that there was a massive conflict in the People's Congress on the ratification process. 2nd HE Le Jeune announced her wish for a female Secretary-General and received an energetic applause. It will be interesting to see if this support will last until the final elections. 3rd All Excellencies gave proof of their unity on one issue: When asked how the US position might change if Trump was elected president, no one answered the question but just giggled instead. This definitely shows that the international community has great humor. After about one and a half hours, the special guest arrived.
Minutes before the Secretary-General entered the Board Room the whole audience was silent with turned heads observing the doors. The camera teams and photographers had pointed their lenses at the empty hallway, everybody was awaiting the highest representative of the planet's peoples. When he walked in, an enthusiastic applause resonated and hundreds of smartphone cameras clicked. He is a short man, visually unremarkable but his persona, his eloquence, his message moved every audience member and even the high representatives of the panel were starstruck. In his kind but serious manner he thanked everybody for showing up, for their strong commitment to end nuclear tests worldwide and most importantly urged the eight remaining states to sign and ratify the treaty.
Although the CTBTO has been working for the past two decades, the treaty is not in force. Egypt, China, the US, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran and North Korea have not ratified the CTBT and struggles to convince them have yet all failed. HE Kim pointed out that the refusal of China and the US was caused by a lack of capability to form a unitary opinion in their national assemblies on the issue. It would then be our task, HE Kim argued, to build a global governance network in order to support the widely anti-nuclear attitude among the Chinese and American people.
The Secretary-General passionately answered the many questions from young leaders in the room. He urged the young generation not to take the CTBT for granted since North Korea is more than ever posing a serious threat to global peace by continued nuclear testing. If the international community was unable to evince the unlikeliness of a nuclear attack, other states might re-arm themselves and the progress of 20 years might be lost. HE also asked the youth to write their national representatives to remind them of pursuing a policy securing our future.
Lastly, the Secretary-General pointed out: "It's not only you and me, it's us" He called upon all states to participate faithfully in the negotiations, to realize that this very conference with dozens of nationalities together in one room was the perfect example for the slim meaning of national borders in the world of today. Furthermore, he reminded everyone that more global humanity and responsibility were needed because there was only one world shared by us all: "What else is there? Who else is there?"
Here you can watch the full conference although some important passages have been cut out. The Secretary-General begins his speech at 1:20:00.
