Arms control

The risk of using nuclear weapons is the highest since the Second World War, a senior UN security expert said, calling it an "urgent" issue that the world needs to address more seriously, Reuters reported.

Renata Dwan called this "an urgent issue that the world should take more seriously," Reuters is reporting.

The United States is preparing for its use, said the Director of the Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian MFA, quoted by NOVA TV. 

Having a nuclear weapon in Europe, the United States is preparing to use it, RIA Novosti told the director of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Ermakov, of the Russian MFA's Directorate for Non-proliferation and Control.

The collapse of the nuclear arms control regime can open an era even more dangerous than the cold war years, says a scholar. Turkey risks to become the setting of a crisis between Washington and Moscow according to Professor Mustafa Kibaroğlu.
 

The arms sales of Turkish companies rose by 24 percent in 2017, according to a report released on Dec. 10 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Bulgaria's booming arms trade continued to grow in 2017 with arms and ammunitions exports topping €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion), an official report showed on Wednesday, October 31, reports The Defense Post. 

Conflicts in the Middle East have boosted Bulgaria's arms sales in recent years to levels not seen since the fall of communism in 1989.

Turkey will chair the last session of the ongoing 2018 disarmament conference in Geneva, it was announced on Aug. 20.

Bearing in mind that 25 million people live in the region, this means that one quarter has small arms, says the director of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, Sonja Stojanovic- Gajic.

The United States said it would boycott the June 5 session of the Conference on Disarmament amid fears that Syria is using its presidency of the body to "normalise" the regime.     

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Australia said on Sunday they held “grave concerns” about escalating tensions caused by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.