NUCLEAR-ARMED states are undermining global security and must end their weapons programmes, a UN summit has affirmed.
The third meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) concluded at the UN building in New York on Friday, with delegates agreeing on a statement described as the “strongest condemnation of nuclear deterrence ever heard from a multinational forum”.
“Nuclear deterrence is posited on the very existence of nuclear risk, which threatens the survival of all,” the states parties warned.
Masako Wada, who survived the bombing of Nagasaki and is assistant secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, which won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, attended the meeting.
She said after its conclusion: “There are countries, including Japan, that claim that nuclear deterrence prevents the use of nuclear weapons. However, there can be no such guarantee and its effectiveness has never been verified.
“In contrast, it is encouraging that at this meeting a declaration firmly rejecting nuclear deterrence was adopted.”
The majority of the world’s nations are supportive of the TPNW, which was created in 2017 and bans outright the use, development, threat to use, or hosting of nuclear weapons within signatories’ borders.
As it stands, exactly half of the world’s countries have signed the treaty, and more are expected to accede later in 2025, according to the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Melissa Parke.
Europe is seen as the global outlier, with a majority of its nations supporting nuclear weapons. Africa, in contrast, is universally behind the TPNW.
EU member states Austria, Ireland, and Malta are signed up to the treaty, and agreed to the statement on Friday which said: “The continued reliance on nuclear weapons by some states in their military and security concepts, doctrines and policies undermines global security and increases escalation, as well as proliferation risks.”
Parke said: “The countries that have been meeting here are clear eyed about the threat we all face from nuclear weapons, with the risk of nuclear conflict higher than it has ever been.
“The TPNW states are showing leadership by opposing the dangerous and misguided doctrine of nuclear deterrence that encourages the kind of escalatory behaviour we are seeing in Europe right now.
“We face a stark choice – further proliferation that puts the entire world in danger or the elimination of nuclear weapons through the TPNW.”
ICAN said the TPNW states parties' statement was "the strongest condemnation of deterrence ever heard from a multinational forum".
