SEVEN decades after the world first witnessed the horror of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nobel committee has recognised the efforts of campaigners fighting to ban the use of these weapons of mass destruction. On Friday, the committee awarded this year`s Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or Ican, a conglomerate of global organisations working to stop the spread and use of nukes.

While the award is well deserved and, indeed, timely, it may also be largely symbolic, as few of the nine declared and undeclared nuclear powers of the world would likely do away with their weapons anytime soon. However, in the current global scenario, even a symbolic gesture such as this is welcome. We have recently witnessed a nasty war of words between North Korea and the US (both nuclear states), while the American president has also threatened to tear up the landmark 2015 nuclear deal painstakingly negotiated between Iran and the P5+1. Moreover, we in South Asia live in an increasingly volatile region, with both this country and India possessing nuclear weapons, which add a dangerous element to the fraught relations between the two states. With so many nuclear hotspots around the globe, Ican`s efforts should be appreciated and strengthened.

As Nobel committee members have pointed out, the risk of nuclear weapons being used is currently `greater than it has been for a long time`. To put it mildly, the leading actors in Washington and Pyongyang are not rational, with both having threatened to destroy the other. While tempers may have cooled for now, the risk of a flareup remains. Where the Iran nuclear deal is concerned, it would be unwise of Washington to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement some news outlets have observed that Donald Trump may be planning to scrap the deal in the days to come. Such deals to check nuclear activity must be honoured rather than broken, and nuclear powers must make efforts to reduce their own stockpiles. While stockpiles have come down since the Cold War days, the world still has about 9,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of various states.

Nuclear powers must work collectively to reduce their arsenals, for as an Ican official said on Friday, `fiery rhetoric could all too easily lead us, inexorably, to unspeakable horror`. These are wise words which the world`s nuclear states must heed.