New York, 28 September 2021. Cuba participated today at the High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to Commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, held during the 76th session of the general debate of the United Nations.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno RodrÃguez Parrilla, who delivered a statement on behalf of the island, denounced and reiterated Cuba’s position in favor of the complete prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons, which is and should continue to be the highest priority in the area of disarmament. We reaffirm the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy without discrimination, taking into account its contribution and that of nuclear technology to the socioeconomic development of our nations, he also stated.
The Foreign Minister affirmed that while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to generate a crisis of multiple and demolishing effects, nuclear arsenals are being modernized and expanded, under the pretext of military concepts or doctrines of defense and security, which are based on a questionable nuclear deterrence and threaten humanity.
He illustrated the high military expenditures and contrasted them with the situation of the majority of the world’s population today: only one third of the world’s population has received a dose of vaccine against COVID-19; between 720 and 811 million human beings suffer from hunger in the world and the United Nations estimates that 130 million people will plunge into extreme poverty by 2021. At the same time, he pointed out that there are still 13 080 nuclear weapons on the planet, 3 825 of them deployed and around 2 000 under operational alert, being the United States the country that maintains the largest number of these artifacts ready for use.
In the same context, RodrÃguez Parrilla called for the universalization of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force on 22 January 2021.
Cuba takes pride in having been the fifth State to ratify this international instrument; of being part of the first Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in a densely populated area of the planet and belonging to the first region of the world to proclaim itself as a Zone of Peace.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations
