Ministry Statements & Speeches:
President,
New Zealand strongly advocates for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Our long-standing commitment to this cause is rooted in the Pacific's experience of nuclear testing. The tests may have ended, but their consequences remain. Communities, environments and traditional ways of life still bear the scars of that legacy.
Today, the threat of nuclear weapons is at its highest in decades. Nuclear arsenals and threats are on the rise. The world is moving further away from elimination and into a new era of nuclear competition.
On this International Day, New Zealand makes four calls:
1. All States possessing or relying on nuclear weapons should take concrete, measurable steps towards their elimination.
2. States outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should renounce their nuclear arsenals and join the Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon States.
3. States yet to sign or ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty should do so urgently.
4. All States should move to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as the clearest legal expression of the international community’s rejection of nuclear weapons.
New Zealand supports the goals of this International Day by working to keep the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at the centre of international discussion.
We are pleased with the progress of the UN scientific panel on Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research. Stemming from a resolution led by Ireland and New Zealand, this initiative is drawing on the best available science to deepen understanding of the consequences of nuclear war.
New Zealand was disappointed that this year’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference ended without an agreed final outcome. But this does not diminish the Treaty’s obligations or the commitments made at previous Review Conferences. Together, we must strengthen the NPT and advance its goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty remains one of the clearest examples of practical and verifiable restraint. New Zealand welcomes Tonga’s ratification of the Treaty this year, completing CTBT universalisation across the Pacific region.
The world does not need more weapons. It needs more restraint, greater cooperation, and renewed investment in the arrangements that reduce those risks.
I acknowledge the leadership of the UN Secretary-General, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and the tireless efforts of civil society and other stakeholders, who continue to remind us that progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation remains possible.
Thank you.