Guterres calls for unity for an agreement on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests

MADRID, 29 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has called this Monday for unity to end nuclear weapons in the annual celebration of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

"Nuclear weapons have no place in our world. They do not guarantee victory or security. By design, their only result is destruction," Guterres asserted, before making "a call to the world to act for health and survival of the planet".

In this sense, the secretary general has asked that "we ensure the end of the tests now and forever, and consign nuclear weapons to history, once and for all".

Thus, he considered that "now is the time" for the treaty that entails the "complete ban on nuclear tests" to enter into full force, requiring, as a necessary condition, "an effective verification system" to support it. It therefore requires a legally binding ban on all nuclear tests.

Guterres stressed that the International Day Against Nuclear Tests "represents a global recognition of the catastrophic and persistent damage caused in the name of the nuclear arms race."

This commemoration is "a way to remember those who suffered because of the madness of atomic politics" and "an alarm signal".

This Friday, Russia blocked the final joint declaration of the revision of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), after the end of the four-week conference of negotiations in New York, due to various objections from Moscow related to the war in Ukraine.

"To my deep regret, this conference has not been able to reach a consensus," said the president of the meeting, Gustavo Zlauvinen, after finishing the meeting, whose purpose was to establish binding deadlines for the dismantling of nuclear weapons.

After the Russian statement, delegates from dozens of countries have been in favor of the agreement. For its part, France -- on behalf of various countries, including members of the European Union -- has reiterated its support for kyiv and has condemned Putin's invasion.

The treaty, which entered into force in 1970, has so far been ratified by 191 countries. Critics, however, complain that the five official nuclear powers -- the United States, China, Britain, France and Russia -- are subject to different rules than non-nuclear signatories. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea also possess nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), but are not signatories to the treaty.