Pope warns against ‘false security’ of nuclear weapons

Francis addressed Nobel peace laureates, UN and Nato officials and diplomats from countries with the bomb during a Vatican conference aimed at galvanising support for a global shift from the Cold War-era policy of nuclear deterrence to one of disarmament.

Speaking in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, Francis acknowledged that current tensions might render efforts at ridding the world of nuclear weapons remote.

But he said reliance on such weapons “create nothing but a false sense of security”, and that any use of them, even accidental, would be “catastrophic” for humanity and the environment.

He said: “International relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms.”

Francis added that “progress that is both effective and inclusive can achieve the utopia of a world free of deadly instruments of aggression”.

He also endorsed a new UN treaty calling for the elimination of atomic weapons, saying it filled an important gap in international law.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), the advocacy group that won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for its instrumental role in getting the treaty passed, is among the speakers at the two-day Vatican meeting.

The conference comes amid mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula and heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang over the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The event’s organizer,…