Ban Ki-moon hails new START treaty

On the eve of the signing of the new START nuclear treaty, euronews got reaction from the UN Secretary General.

He has been visiting a former Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan.

Exactly 456 nuclear explosions took place there, which Ban described as an awful legacy.

He told euronews: “I highly commend President Medvedev of the Russian Federation and President Obama of the United States who are signing this successor treaty to START. This is a fresh start, and I hope other nuclear weapons states leaders will follow suit.”

He added: “I’m convinced that this encouraging development of the situation in the arena of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation will certainly have a positive impact on our ongoing and continuing efforts to realise the world without nuclear weapons, including the Iranian nuclear development programme.”

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