Cuba ratified at the United Nations its firm position in favor of the prohibition and total elimination of nuclear weapons, which is based on the profoundly humanist position of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, and is endorsed in the Constitution of the Republic.

This was stated by Yuri Gala, Chargé d'Affaires ai of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN, in his speech at the general debate of the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

In his words, published on the website of the Island's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he stressed that political manipulation, selectivity, and double standards in non-proliferation must cease. The diplomat added that the only sustainable solution to the existential problem that nuclear weapons represent is their total elimination in a transparent, irreversible, and verifiable manner.

Fifty-two years after the entry into force of the treaty, he lamented the lack of concrete progress in nuclear disarmament, in particular regarding the fulfillment of the obligations and commitments acquired by the nuclear powers.

It is unacceptable that the nuclear states use the resources that should be devoted to confronting the multidimensional effects of COVID-19, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, to continue developing new types of nuclear weapons, as well as to increase and modernize their arsenals; in violation of its reduction commitments, Gala said. He pointed out that it is neither fair nor acceptable that a group of States Parties strictly comply with all the obligations of the npt and others do not.

Nor is it 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, supplying and transferring technologies, said the Cuban Ambassador.

International@granma.cu                      08/03/2022