CAPE TOWN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Africa on Thursday urged all member states of the United Nations to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
South Africa continues to make a clarion call to all member states of the UN to sign and ratify the treaty in order to rid the world and humanity of these lethal weapons of mass destruction, Mahlobo told delegates attending the 44th Policy Group meeting of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), taking place in Cape Town.
The GIF is a cooperative international endeavor to carry out the research and development needed to establish the feasibility and performance capabilities of the next generation nuclear energy systems.
In July 2017, the UN adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. A majority of states voted in favor of eliminating and banning those weapons because of their devastating effects on human health and the environment.
South Africa signed the treaty last month. The government has said signature of the treaty reflects South Africa's continued commitment towards the realization of a world free from the threat posed by nuclear weapons,
"We reaffirm, at the same time, the inalienable rights of states to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as reinforced in the Non-Proliferation Treaty," Mahlobo said.
South Africa firmly believes that there are no safe hands for weapons of mass destruction, he said.
The only viable solution to the problems of nuclear weapons is their total elimination as expressed in the treaty banning nuclear weapons UN recently adopted, said Mahlobo.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, with the goal of leading towards their total elimination.
South Africa, the only country in the world to dismantle nuclear weapons it developed, has already been a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1991.
