5 More Countries will become Party to Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty at UN General Assembly in New York
- Vineet Malik
- Sep 19, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 20, 2022
By Vineet Malik | September 19, 2022 | London, England
Five countries will sign and/or ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in a ceremony to be held at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 22 September.
The significant development will increase the total number of signatories to the TPNW from 84 to 89.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo will ratify the treaty. As a matter of fact, the radioactive chemical uranium used as a nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima Nagasaki in 1945 that killed more than 200,000 people was sourced from Congo.
Congo, most commendably put an end to mining uranium chemical in 2004 and has not looked back since then.
Other countries to sign the treaty are Barbados, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty.
ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn says “With more and more countries joining the nuclear ban treaty, we are taking significant steps towards the abolition of these weapons. As the number of countries signing and ratifying the TPNW grows, the pressure on the nine nuclear weapons states and their supporters to join the treaty grows. The strengthening of the treaty is particularly welcome at this time when the war in Ukraine has seen the risk of nuclear weapons use increase and one of the world’s largest nuclear-armed states has made undisguised threats to use its arsenal with all the devastation that implies.”
According to an integrated review of security, defense, development and foreign policy published last year, the United Kingdom (UK) in contravention to its nuclear disarmament obligations under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), stepped back while making an announcement about increasing the ceiling on its overall stockpile to 260 warheads by the middle of the decade.
Liz Truss, even prior to being appointed as the new Prime Minister (PM) of the UK last month said “The UK would launch a nuclear strike on Russia, even though result would be “global annihilation.”
Later to support the statement, that was condemned by people at large Truss said “If we don’t stop Putin in Ukraine, we are going to see others under threat : the Baltics, Poland, Moldova and it could end up conflict with The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The upcoming ceremony on Thursday will be attended by the top brass of ICAN and other key dignitaries.
This story is first published by The Revelation.
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