The address of the Holy See’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York at the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons underscores how the “total elimination of nuclear weapons” is “a necessary responsibility that calls for concrete and credible steps.”
Vatican News
A just, secure, and lasting peace rests on a single pillar: disarmament. The necessary path to achieve it, and to reach the total elimination of nuclear weapons, is provided by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). For this reason, the Holy See calls on all States that have not yet done so to join it, always keeping at the center of reflection “the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of the use of nuclear weapons” that would have “devastating and far-reaching effects, transcending borders and generations.”
The recommendation came yesterday, May 1, from the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York, on the occasion of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, underway from April 27 to May 22.
A lasting peace
“In an era of increasing strain on the foundations of international security,” the address noted, “it is crucial to consider the core conditions necessary for lasting peace.” Nuclear disarmament aims to overcome “a model of security grounded in fear, in the threat of force, and in the perpetuation of mutual vulnerability,” which can never offer “a stable or lasting foundation for peace.”
The Holy See points to what it describes as worrying trends, such as “the resurgence of nuclear rhetoric, the expansion and modernization of nuclear arsenals, and the evolution of deterrence doctrines in ways that risk lowering thresholds.” Added to this is the erosion of agreements on both arms control and disarmament, “which have long contributed to stability, transparency, and trust.”
Eliminating nuclear weapons
The total elimination of nuclear weapons, it maintains, “is not a distant aspiration, but a necessary responsibility that calls for concrete and credible steps, directed at achieving a more just, secure, and enduring peace.”
While expressing concern over “the rapid integration of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, into nuclear systems,” the Permanent Mission reiterates “the need to advance nuclear risk reduction and de-escalation measures,” bearing in mind the need to limit “the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines,” and the essential importance of “enhancing transparency, and strengthening channels of communication.”
