NEW YORK -- Liberia has called on the world's nuclear powers to honor their promises to reduce and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons, arguing that countries which demand compliance with global rules must also live up to the commitments they have made.
Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Lewis G. Brown II, delivered the message Tuesday, September 29, during a high-level UN meeting in New York commemorating the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
At the center of Liberia's argument is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly called the NPT.
The treaty is essentially a global bargain. Countries without nuclear weapons agree not to acquire them. Nuclear-armed countries that are parties to the treaty, meanwhile, commit under Article VI to pursue negotiations in good faith toward ending the nuclear arms race and achieving nuclear disarmament. The treaty also protects the right of member countries to develop nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes.
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Brown urged countries that remain outside the NPT to join it, while reminding nuclear powers of their own obligations.
For Liberia, the argument is straightforward: the credibility of international rules depends not only on weaker or non-nuclear countries obeying them, but also on powerful nations honoring the obligations they accepted.
That concern has become more urgent.
More than 12,000 nuclear warheads remained in the world's arsenals as of January 2026, according to the United Nations. Between 2,100 and 2,200 were maintained on high operational alert, capable of being launched at very short notice. The UN also warns that the global nuclear stockpile is expected to begin growing again as new and modernized weapons enter arsenals faster than older weapons are dismantled.
Brown warned that the consequences of failure would extend far beyond the countries possessing the weapons.
"Security built on mutual annihilation is not peace; it is merely an armistice with catastrophe," he said.
He argued that a single nuclear explosion could cause civilian suffering and destruction beyond the capacity of humanitarian institutions to adequately address.
But why should any of this matter to Liberia, a country without nuclear weapons and with no ambition to acquire them?
Because the NPT is about more than bombs.
One of the treaty's important provisions guarantees participating countries the right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and encourages international cooperation to make such benefits available, particularly to developing countries.
That has practical implications for Liberia.
Nuclear science can be used in agriculture and food security, cancer diagnosis and treatment, water management, environmental protection and other areas of development. Through the International Atomic Energy Agency, developing countries can receive technical cooperation, training and assistance in applying these technologies.
Liberia has already identified some of those possibilities.
At an IAEA General Conference, Liberia said it was in the early stages of developing a national framework for peaceful nuclear technology, with particular interest in medical applications and agriculture. The country specifically identified expanding access to radiotherapy for cancer treatment and improving food security through nuclear techniques as priorities.
This gives Liberia a direct stake in preserving the international system surrounding nuclear technology: preventing its spread as a weapon while ensuring that poorer countries are not shut out of its peaceful benefits.
The debate is also taking place at a difficult moment for global nuclear arms control.
The New START treaty between the United States and Russia expired on February 5, 2026 without a successor. According to the UN General Assembly president, that left the world's two largest nuclear powers without binding limits on their strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time since 1972.
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Liberia therefore used its voice at the United Nations to press both sides of the bargain: countries without nuclear weapons should remain committed to non-proliferation, while those possessing them should demonstrate that disarmament commitments are more than words.
Brown reaffirmed Liberia's support for IAEA verification and international cooperation while calling for greater access to peaceful nuclear technology for development.
Liberia, he said, stands for "diplomacy over brinkmanship, humanity over hegemony, and shared future over guaranteed destruction."
For a small country without nuclear weapons, Liberia may have little direct influence over the arsenals of the world's major powers. But as a member of the UN Security Council, it has a platform from which to insist on a basic principle of the international system:
Promises made under international treaties should apply to the powerful, too.
