As disarmament and arms control Minister, times like these bring into sharp focus the need for a renewed focus internationally on disarmament and particularly the threat of nuclear weapons. This means not only limiting destruction when conflict occurs but reducing the tensions that lead to war breaking out in the first place. It's a tough climate right now for nuclear disarmament. The nuclear-weapon States who also happen to be the permanent members of the Security Council, of which Russia is one, argue that the international security climate is too uncertain and too unstable to be ambitious about following through on their commitments to reduce and eliminate their nuclear arsenals. But President Putin, in threatening the use of nuclear weapons, in the course of an unprovoked invasion of a neighbouring country, has surely demonstrated that the opposite is true.