Moreover, the nuclear-weapon states remain in various reduced but palpable conditions of defensive alert.

The conference's 65 members represent all areas of the world, including all known nuclear-weapon states.

First, the five main nuclear-weapon states have not taken seriously their NPT obligation to work for nuclear disarmament.

"And I know, and you know, that if a country is capable of doing that, they are virtually a nuclear-weapon state."

None of the nuclear-weapon states have signed this protocol.

India is a nuclear-weapon state; having conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by another five tests in 1998.

You have a limited number of nuclear-weapon states and a nuclear umbrella under NATO, but most of the other countries are left in the cold.

The exemption that the nuclear-weapon states have enjoyed from its mandatory oversight should end.

Its main complaint was that an Indian proposal to rule the use of nuclear weapons a war crime was rejected "by the five officially-recognised nuclear-weapon states."

It would give a clear message: that the nuclear-weapon states have stopped developing new nuclear weapons.