NTI touts ratification of Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) said the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has been ratified by 50 nations and will enter into force early next year.

The initiative serves as a call to action, accelerating progression to a world without nuclear weapons.

NTI CEO Ernest J. Moniz and President Joan Rohlfing said in a joint statement that despite progress made over the past 30 years regarding the reduction in the number of nuclear weapons reduced globally, the risk a nuclear weapon will be used is as high today as at any time since the height of the Cold War.

“The destructive power of these weapons makes it critical that all states—whether or not they support the TPNW—work together on the urgent, practical steps necessary to reduce nuclear dangers and pave the way toward disarmament,” Muniz and Rohlfing indicated. “We urge nations to reinvigorate these efforts, including by working together to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty and ensure a successful Review Conference next year; declaring that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought; extending the New START treaty and then beginning work on follow-on agreements to further reduce nuclear arsenals of the United States, Russia and eventually other nuclear weapons states; developing credible verification approaches for arms control and nuclear disarmament steps; reaffirming national moratoria on explosive nuclear testing and moving expeditiously to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force; and advancing negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.”

The NTI maintains the nuclear ban treaty support sends a clear message determining many people and nations consider the status quo dangerous and unsustainable.