New York, 7 September 2022, Plenary Meeting at the UN against nuclear tests. Italy’s appeal to the General Assembly: “binding rules are needed, states must sign and ratify the CTBT Treaty”.
Italy spoke today as co-president of the Conference for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), at the Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.
The CTBT Treaty, which prohibits any nuclear weapons test explosion or other nuclear explosion, has not yet entered into force more than 25 years since it was opened for signature. In the words of Ambassador Massari, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, ” if the current voluntary moratoriums are not translated into binding rules for all, they do not guarantee a world free from nuclear weapons: to this end, Italy co-chaired the Ministerial Conference pursuant to art. XIV of the CTBT, aimed at promoting the entry into force of the CTBT. Under the Italian co-presidency, which will continue for another year, important results have already been recorded such as the recent ratifications of the Treaty by Tuvalu, Gambia, Dominica and East Timor”. In this context, Italy also continues to support the extraordinary action of the Executive Secretary of the CTBTO, Robert Floyd.
Referring to Russia’s blocking, on August 27, of the consensus on the final document of the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty – which could have reaffirmed the importance of the entry into force of the CTBT – Massari underlined how “the current threats to global peace and security make it more urgent than ever to renew efforts for the universalization and entry into force of the CTBT”.
Italy’s statement also urged North Korea to refrain from further provocations and to take concrete steps towards complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization: “we call for Pyongyang to engage in credible negotiations and to respect the resolutions of the UN Security Council, to rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and to sign and ratify the CTBT”.
