New York, November 28th, 2023.- Ambassador Gerardo Peñalver Portal, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, participated in the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which began on Monday.
During his speech, Peñalver Portal explained that the TPNW, which explicitly qualifies the use of nuclear weapons as an act contrary to International Law and International Humanitarian Law, complements the international architecture of security, disarmament and non-proliferation.
He highlighted the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and later the Zone of Peace, which has the largest number of States Parties to the TPNW.
Later, the Cuban diplomat explained that the total elimination of this type of weapons is still far from being achieved, while nuclear arsenals continue to be modernized and new nuclear weapons systems are deployed for their potential use.
In the same context, he said that Israel's recent statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons against Iran and the Palestinian people in Gaza are worrying.
"There must be an end to the warmongering rhetoric in the Middle East, which only contributes to exacerbating tensions," he demanded.
Before concluding, the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations warned, as the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, had done so many times, that the danger posed by the Cuban Revolution would be a great threat to the Cuban Revolution.
Cuban Permanent Mission to the United Nations