. Cuba believes that the mere existence of nuclear arms is a threat against humanity. The use of a tiny part of the over 16,000 existing nuclear weapons, of which 4,000 are operational, would have catastrophic consequences for our planet.
• We reaffirm the urgent necessity of attaining total elimination of nuclear weapons in a transparent, irreversible and verifiable manner with a multilaterally agreed timetable.
• The Non-Aligned Movement has presented a proposal that sets a concrete schedule for the gradual reduction of nuclear arms until their total elimination and prohibition for the year 2025 at the latest; this should be seriously considered by the international community.
• The use of nuclear weapons implies the flagrant violation of international standards related to the prevention of genocide and protection of the environment. Cuba maintains that the use of nuclear weapons is illegal, immoral and cannot be justified under any security concept or doctrine.
• The idea of “nuclear deterrence” as the basis for unsustainable and unacceptable military doctrines must be definitely abandoned; far from contributing to nuclear disarmament, they stimulate the perpetual possession of those weapons.
• We are opposed to all kinds of nuclear weapons testing including what takes place using super-computers and other sophisticated non-explosive methods.
• In 2013 the astronomical figure of 1747 billion dollars in global military spending was reached. It is unacceptable that in today’s world more is being spent on measures to wage war than on promoting development. A great part of that money being dedicated today to maintaining and modernizing nuclear arsenals should be used to benefit humankind, to promote the development of counties and to definitely eradicate poverty.
• The International Conferences held in Oslo, Nayarit and Vienna have contributed to greater international understanding about the serious risks and catastrophic humanitarian consequences associated with the existence of nuclear arms. But that is not enough, nor can it be the final objective.
• Cuba advocates an all-encompassing Convention on the prohibition of nuclear weapons which would include the prohibition on possession, development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, moving, using or threatening to use those weapons and stipulating their destruction under strict international controls.
• Consequently we are calling on the Disarmament Conference to immediately begin negotiations to achieve a Convention on Nuclear Disarmament that could be formally adopted by the General Assembly at the Senior-Level United Nations Conference on Nuclear Disarmament; it has been called for 2018 at the latest by UNGA Resolution 68/32.
• States possessing nuclear weapons should give guarantees to States that do not possess them, that they won’t be using them or threatening to use them, by urgently adopting a universal instrument that is unconditional and legally binding on negative security guarantees.
• We urge governments, parliaments and civil society to take the necessary measures every year to celebrate September 26th as the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
• In terms of a historical milestone on January 29th of 2014, on the occasion of the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in Havana, the Latin American and Caribbean region was formally proclaimed as a Zone of Peace. The proclamation includes the region’s States’ resolute commitment to promoting nuclear disarmament as its top priority objective.
• We highlight our resolute support and commitment with the CELAC Declarations on Nuclear Disarmament adopted on August 20, 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; on January 28 of 2014 in Havana, Cuba; and on January 29 of 2015 in Belén, Costa Rica. They all reaffirm the necessity of total elimination and prohibition of nuclear weapons and the Community’s commitment to undertake actions to achieve this.
• Cuba’s proposal presented at the Third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons directed to achieve the adoption of a legally binding instrument on nuclear disarmament was expressly supported in the CELAC Special Declaration on Nuclear Disarmament adopted in Belén in Janaury of 2015.