This week in New York, representatives from 174 nations have gathered to begin a four-week conference to review the renewal of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Long hailed as the cornerstone of global efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, the 25-year-old treaty requires all signers to the treaty, except the five nuclear powers, to renounce all nuclear weapons programs.
Many non-nuclear nations have criticized the treaty, saying that the five nuclear powers have not lived up to Article VI of the treaty because they are not moving fast enough toward disarmament, complaining that the treaty as it now stands creates a nuclear weapons monopoly by a few.
Other leading countries from the developing world have also accused the five nuclear powers of not sharing peaceful nuclear technologies with them and are calling for a pledge of assistance in case of nuclear attack only to countries that have signed the treaty.
Brazil, India, Chile, Pakistan and about a dozen other countries have refused to sign the treaty.