NEW YORK, AUGUST 29 – “The current threats to peace and global security make it more urgent than ever to renew all efforts towards the universalization and enforcement of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Testing. Every country has a role to play, and Italy calls on all partners to work closely together to give political momentum to these efforts, translate it into action, and ultimately into reality,” Ambassador Maurizio Massari, the Italian Permanent Representative to the UN, told the General Assembly on the occasion of the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) “is a cornerstone of the disarmament and non-proliferation agenda, as well as of the wider multilateral architecture. By banning ‘any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion’, it counteracts the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and helps preventing nuclear competition,” Massari continued: “Regrettably, more than 25 years after its opening for signature, the CTBT has not yet entered into force. It has, however, achieved two very important goals: it has paved the way for a moratorium on nuclear tests, which we call on all States to maintain, and, through its related organization, the CTBTO, it has created a highly effective global verification regime, whose invaluable role in quickly providing reliable and independent data has been repeatedly demonstrated”. He then reiterated that Italy “strongly supports any initiative aimed at facilitating its entry into force.”
To this end, Italy co-chairs the Ministerial Art. XIV Conference of the CTBT since September 2021 together with South Africa. In this two-year period, Italy has strengthened its efforts – in partnership with South Africa, the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the CTBTO and the States Signatories – to advance the universalization of the Treaty with new signatures and more ratifications. In this regard, Massari welcomed the ratifications of the Treaty, during the past two years, by Tuvalu, Gambia, Dominica, Timor-Leste, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Sri Lanka and the Solomon Islands. (@OnuItalia)
