The Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Abdulla Shahid has said the Maldives has a moral and ethical responsibility to call for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and that their total elimination was the only guarantee to prevent their use.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Abdulla Shahid has said the Maldives has a moral and ethical responsibility to call for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and that their total elimination was the only guarantee to prevent their use.
Minister Shahid delivered his remarks at the High-level Meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day of Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, which was convened on the sidelines of the ongoing 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Minister Shahid said that the significance of observing this international day connotes the moral commitment of the international community towards general disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, while being aware of the devastating threat posed by such weapons to humanity and collective necessity to work towards their complete elimination.
Minister Shahid announced that the Maldives will ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and also the Arms Trade Treaty and the Cluster Munitions Convention. He reiterated that the decision to do so by the Government of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is a clear indication of the Maldives’ ethical and moral principles concerning international peace and security.
The Maldives has in the past taken principled positions in calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. It first ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970, and remains fully supportive of the international disarmament machinery, including the First Committee of the General Assembly, the Disarmament Commission, and the Conference on Disarmament.
ENDS