Havana, June 21, 2022.- The Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, ratified Cuba's firm commitment to nuclear disarmament, speaking at the opening day of the First Meeting of States of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Weapons Nuclear, which takes place from June 21 to 23 in Vienna, Austria.
The Cuban representative highlighted that the entry into force of the Treaty, on January 22, 2021, marked a milestone, as it is the first international legal instrument to establish that nuclear weapons are not only inhuman, immoral and ethically indefensible; but also illegal.
"Nothing justifies that humanity continues to be threatened by the existence of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons, 3,825 of which are deployed, ready for immediate use," said the representative of the Island.
In his speech, the Cuban Foreign Minister also expressed concern about the vertiginous growth of world military spending in the last 7 years, which has already reached a historical record, surpassing for the first time the figure of 2 trillion dollars. The United States alone dedicated more than 800 billion dollars to the war industry in 2021
The head of Cuban diplomacy described the achievement of nuclear disarmament as a matter of survival and emphasized that the total elimination of nuclear weapons, in a transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner, is and must continue to be the highest priority in the sphere of disarmament, as this is the only way to guarantee that humanity will never again suffer its terrible impact.
Cuba participates in the historic first meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with the commitment to contribute to the adoption of important decisions aimed at achieving an effective implementation of that legal instrument and promoting its universalization.
Currently, the Treaty has 65 States parties and another 24 States are signatories.
(Cubaminrex)