The Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, expressed this Friday the deep concern of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela at the prospects of a new nuclear arms race by States that have this technology of mass destruction, while ratifying its commitment with world peace, during his speech presented at the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly to celebrate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
He explained that the concern of the South American nation derives from the “repeal of those mutually agreed international treaties to limit and reduce such weapons among the main possessing States. The collapse of these agreements and the increase in nuclear spending demonstrate the unacceptable setback that has been taking place in this area. Such deployments show that we are far from the ‘peace and security’ that in theory these weapons should provide”.
In this meeting framed in the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, the Chancellor stressed that Venezuela has always condemned the production, storage, use and threat of use of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons: “The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is definitely their total elimination”, he said.
He insisted that strategic doctrines and security policies based on the possession of nuclear weapons ignore the cry of the peoples of the world for their total elimination and show that unfortunately the interests of a very small group of States have prevailed over the interests of the humanity.
“We know that the United States uses all the means at its disposal to try to intervene in the internal affairs of the countries and continuously affect internal peace and international peace. Multilateralism and Peace Diplomacy must prevent Washington’s warmongering and supremacist ambitions from putting life on our planet at risk. Let us act firmly for humanity”, urged the head of the Venezuelan diplomacy.
In this sense, Venezuela validated as its own the declaration of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NAM) and added its voice to the immediate cessation of plans for the modernization, qualitative improvement, development, production and storage of nuclear warheads and their delivery systems.
Minister Arreaza recalled that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) declared this region as a Zone of Peace in 2014.
“Once again, we appeal that security doctrines not be used against the freedom of the free peoples of the world”, he concluded his speech.
In 2013, during the first high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament, the UN General Assembly, through a resolution, declared September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
This 2020 has the special significance of commemorating 50 years of the entry into force of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which with the aim of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, is the only multilateral treaty which represents a binding commitment for the nuclear-weapon States to the objective of disarmament.
