On April 30, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and head of the delegation of the Holy See to the 2019 Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, gave a statement during the second day of the “Prep Com.”
Archbishop Auza said that 2020 is the fiftieth anniversary of the entry into force of the NPT, which is a cornerstone of global efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. He mentioned four issues that warrant urgent attention. First, the NPT needs to be strengthened in the area of verification and needs a competent international authority to help achieve irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons programs. Second, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) needs prompt action by its two principal parties so that the Treaty does not lapse on August 2. Third, States in the Middle East that have not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) should do so promptly and urgently negotiate a zone free of nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. Fourth, the Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized. He said that the possession and maintenance of nuclear weapons destabilize the world through mutual distrust based on the deterrent threat of mutually assured destruction, something that the NPT is meant to remedy to help foster true and lasting global peace.
The statement can be found here.