17 December 2019
Gorbachev: Don’t give up hope for world without nuclear weaponsWith the Trump administration withdrawing from a key nuclear weapons agreement and even contemplating the use of low-grade nuclear weapons, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev wants to reach out to the United States for dialogue.
"The main thing is to act so as not to allow the world to slide towards an arms race, to a confrontation, and to hostility," Gorbachev said. "Despite everything, I believe that this is still within our capabilities."
As general secretary of the former Soviet Union, Gorbachev played a large role in bringing the Cold War to an end and reaching agreements with the United States on reducing nuclear weapons. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
The Asahi Shimbun recently interviewed Gorbachev, 88, in Moscow to hear his views on what needs to be done to restore mutual cooperation and negotiations to lessen the dangers of nuclear war.
Excerpts of the interview follow:
Question: Having worked toward the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), how do you now feel about the invalidation of that treaty?
Gorbachev: I want to remind you of an idea which was the main driver on the road to this treaty. It is expressed in the joint announcement given by the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States that was agreed at our first meeting (in 1985) in Geneva: "A nuclear war is not acceptable, and there will be no winners in a nuclear war."
We announced that we had to get rid of nuclear weapons. This is something I am still praying for.
This was the first step as the states reviewed their respective military doctrines with the aim of reducing their reliance on nuclear weapons. In comparison with the peak of the Cold War, the number of nuclear weapons that Russia and the United States had was reduced by more than 80 percent.
The countries of Eastern and Western Europe agreed on reductions in their armed forces and their weaponry. This was the "peace dividend," which everyone received as a result of the end of the Cold War.
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The XXI century will be a сentury either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us - all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all faiths - must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance.
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