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Minister Coveney participates in High-Level Meeting commemorating the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney T.D., today participated in a High-level meeting commemorating 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

 

This annual meeting is of particular significance this year as it marks the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only occasion when nuclear weapons have been used in war.

 

On 6 August, Ireland ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons. The Treaty currently has 46 ratifications and will enter into force when it reaches 50 ratifications. Ireland is a member of the Core Group of States who negotiated the TPNW in 2017.

 

At today’s meeting, Minister Coveney underscored Ireland’s long-standing commitment to global nuclear disarmament.

 

“Nuclear disarmament has long been a feature of Irish foreign policy, from the early days of our membership of the United Nations. Ireland is associated with the origins of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which remains the cornerstone for the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation architecture and which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year.”

 

Minister Coveney stressed that achieving a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons remains a priority for Ireland.

 

“The only guarantee of safety from nuclear weapons is their total elimination. Ireland will continue to work to ensure the most powerful and most indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction ever invented, have no place in the security doctrine of any state.  Their very existence has threatened us all for the past 75 years.  That’s far too long.”

 

Notes for Editors:

 

  • This meeting is Minister Coveney’s final UN General Assembly High Level Week engagement.

 

  • The 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75) opened on 15 September. High-level events took place from 21 September – 2 October.

 

  • As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders convened at the UN in a virtual format for the first time.