We Must Not Postpone Disarmament in Hopes of World Peace Appearing First,

 

Secretary-General Says in Message to Latin America-Caribbean Seminar

 

(Delayed in transmission.)

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, to the Seminar on Latin America and the Caribbean Facing Disarmament and Non-Proliferation:  Opportunities and Challenges, in Montevideo, 8 November:

I am pleased to send my greetings to this important Seminar.  I thank President [José] Mujica for his invitation and salute the organizers for designating my five-point nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation proposal as a key focus for your deliberations.

Our common ultimate objective is “general and complete disarmament under effective international control”, as agreed at the General Assembly’s first special session on disarmament in 1978.  This entails efforts to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, biological, and chemical — and the limitation and regulation of conventional armaments.

Achieving these goals will not only strengthen international peace and security, but also open up new opportunities for the world to address compelling human needs.  We must not postpone efforts to uphold our disarmament responsibilities in the hope that world peace will appear first.  We must face these challenges directly so that peace and prosperity are indeed possible and sustainable for future generations.

My five-point proposal is aimed at revitalizing the global disarmament agenda.  It emphasizes the importance of strengthening the rule of law in disarmament — including the need for a nuclear weapons convention or a framework of separate mutually-reinforcing instruments with the same goal.  It calls for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the negotiation of a fissile material treaty, and the ratification of all the protocols to treaties establishing regional nuclear-weapon-free zones.  It also stresses the importance of completing the job of eliminating other types of weapons of mass destruction, agreeing on new efforts against terrorism involving such weapons, adopting limits for conventional armaments, and developing new constraints on missiles and space weapons.

I have been encouraged by the support that my proposal has received from within the General Assembly, among the States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and from parliamentarians and mayors around the world.  I am also grateful to the Governments and people of Latin America and the Caribbean for recognizing the importance of this work.

Thank you for your commitment to this cause, and please accept my best wishes for a successful Seminar.

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For information media • not an official record