Governments

Support for global zero continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, with strong leadership from the United States and Russia.

In September, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons – a significant step toward an international consensus for this goal.

During the Moscow Summit in July, Presidents Obama and Medvedev announced a framework agreement for new reductions to U.S. and Russian arsenals -- a critical first step toward multilateral negotiations for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. A week later, G8 leaders jointly expressed their support of the Obama-Medvedev effort to eliminate all nuclear weapons and called on all countries to “undertake further steps in nuclear disarmament.

On April 1, 2009, Presidents Obama and Medvedev had already committed [their] two countries to achieving a nuclear free world. The two presidents – the first to ever jointly commit the U.S. and Russia to work for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide – announced that they had agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in [their] strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty. Three days later in Prague, President Obama gave a speech reinforcing his commitment to leading an international effort to eliminate all nuclear weapons and declaring his intention to “seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.

In June 2008 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated: "The pursuit of this goal will enhance not only our security but the security of all other countries. These objectives cannot be achieved through partial methods and approaches. The only effective form of nuclear disarmament and elimination of nuclear weapons is global disarmament."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in March 2008, declared that the United Kingdom would work to achieve the goal of "a world that is free from nuclear weapons." And the Pakistani and Chinese governments recently reaffirmed their own long-standing positions in favor of global zero.

In addition to this support from nuclear weapons countries, many leaders of countries without arsenals are advocating for a new effort for global zero, including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen.