The only sustainable solution to the existential problem that nuclear weapons pose is their complete elimination, said Yuri Gala, Cuba’s Deputy Permanent Representative, during his speech at the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The diplomat lamented the lack of concrete progress on nuclear disarmament, particularly in meeting the commitments and commitments made by the nuclear powers 52 years after the treaty came into force.
“It is unacceptable that nuclear-powered states are using the resources that should be devoted to addressing the multidimensional impact of Covid-19 and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals to continue developing new types of nuclear weapons,” Gala stressed on the second day of the die general discussion.
He pointed out that it is neither fair nor acceptable for one group of states parties to strictly comply with all NPT obligations and others not.
It is also not the case that certain countries are condemned and demonized for alleged violations of the non-proliferation regime by the same states that continue to perfect their nuclear arsenals and supply and transfer technology, said the Cuban ambassador.
Comprehensive progress must be made on the implementation of the NPT and in this sense the conference must end with an unequivocal call on the owning states and the states protected by the so-called “nuclear umbrella” to fulfill their obligations, he added.
These countries – he said – must fulfill the commitments agreed in 1995, 2000 and 2010 without prior conditions or delays, including establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, he stressed.
Gala called for answers to the long-standing requirement of non-nuclear-weapon states to have irreversible safeguards against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
Owner states should be obliged to provide such guarantees through a legally binding, universal and unconditional instrument, he said at the five-yearly meeting, which will end on August 26.
At the opening of the conference on Monday, the Secretary-General of the UN organization, António Guterres, warned that mankind is “only one misunderstanding, one misjudgment away from nuclear annihilation”.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty came into force in 1970 and, with 191 states, including the five nuclear weapons owners, is the multilateral disarmament treaty with a binding commitment and most consents.
/dfm