News & press releases

Statement by the Government of Maldives on the occasion of the Entry into Force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

24 January 2021

The Maldives warmly welcomes the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons today.

Today’s significance is a reminder of the global commitment to free the world of nuclear weapons. It is a clear manifestation of the importance attached by the international community to find common solutions – that is what brought the world together to create the United Nations.

The catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons experienced over seventy-five years ago convinced Member States to free the world of nuclear weapons. The Government of Maldives ratified the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in September 2019. The Maldives is also a State Party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) – critical instruments for the nuclear non-proliferation legal framework.

The Maldives is fully committed to the total elimination of nuclear weapons, as the only guarantee to prevent the use or threat of nuclear weapons against humanity. The Maldives believes in the enforcement of the international disarmament and non-proliferation treaty, and calls on Member States that have not ratified the Treaty to accede to it. The Maldives further calls on Member States that possess nuclear weapons to undertake concrete measures to dismantle their stockpiles and to renounce the possession of the weapons.

ENDS