Treaty banning nukes ratified but US, major powers not on board

The United Nations has introduced that 50 nations have ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into power in 90 days, a transfer hailed by anti-nuclear activists however strongly opposed by the US and the opposite main nuclear powers.

As of Friday, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, often known as the TPNW, had 49 signatories, and UN officers stated the 50th ratification from Honduras had been acquired.

“This moment has been 75 years coming since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the founding of the UN which made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone,” stated Beatrice Fihn, government director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition whose work helped spearhead the nuclear ban treaty. “The 50 countries that ratify this Treaty are showing true leadership in setting a new international norm that nuclear weapons are not just immoral but illegal.”

“The United Nations was formed to promote peace with a goal of the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Fihn stated.

“This treaty is the UN at its best — working closely with civil society to bring democracy to disarmament.”

The 50th ratification got here on the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the UN Charter, which formally established the United Nations and is well known as UN Day. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended the 50 states and saluted “the instrumental work” of civil society in facilitating negotiations.

The US had written to treaty signatories saying the Trump administration believes they made “a strategic error” and urging them to rescind their ratification. The US letter, obtained by The Associated Press, stated the 5 unique nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – and America’s NATO allies “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions” of the treaty.

It says the treaty “turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous” to the half-century-old Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, thought of the cornerstone of world non-proliferation efforts.

“The TPNW is and will remain divisive in the international community and risk further entrenching divisions in existing non-proliferation and disarmament fora that offer the only realistic prospect for consensus-based progress,” the letter stated.

“It would be unfortunate if the TPNW were allowed to derail our ability to work together to address pressing proliferation.”