Speaking at the high-level meeting of the United Nations to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, the head of Cuban diplomacy described the end of their use as a matter of survival.

‘The threat posed by nuclear weapons to the existence of the human species can only disappear with the total elimination of these arsenals, as advocated by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz,’ he stressed.

The Cuban minister recalled that in the last year, those possessing these weapons continued to modernize their arsenals and deployed new nuclear weapons systems while world military expenditure reached the scandalous figure of 2.24 trillion dollars.

While exorbitant resources are squandered, official development aid commitments are not fulfilled and millions of people in the world continue to die of hunger, curable diseases and poverty, he rejected.

In this regard, Rodríguez acknowledged, as a step forward, the adoption and entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

It is the first international legal standard that prohibits their existence and use in all circumstances and provides for their total elimination while explicitly qualifying their use as an act contrary to international law and international humanitarian law, he added.

‘It must remain a top priority to move towards nuclear disarmament in a transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner,’ the Cuban foreign minister emphasized.

Achieving this is a matter of survival. The time for action is now for the sake of the future generations, he added.

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