Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís said that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons signed by dozens of countries on Wednesday is nothing more than “common sense.”
Solís spoke to AFP after presiding over the signing ceremony for the treaty, whose negotiation was facilitated by the government of Costa Rica. The treaty was adopted by 122 countries in July. Solís is in New York for the UN General Assembly.
“There is no way to win in a nuclear conflict,” Solís said. Eliminating them is “common sense, which seems to be the least common of the senses.”
No country that possesses nuclear weapons has participated in the treaty, nor any members of security blocs such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, Solís said he still hopes more countries will join the initiative in the coming years.
The fact that it was approved by 122 countries and signed by nearly 50 yesterday demonstrates “significant maturity on the part of most of the countries of the world, who will be the first victims of a nuclear holocaust,” the president said.
He added that a regional approach may yield results, calling for “more multilateralism, not less.” He cited as an example “the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which in 1968 declared Latin America an area free of nuclear weapons. And it has worked. Something similar could be established in other regions of the world.”
The signing of the Treaty took place just one day after U.S. President Donald Trump took to the floor of the United Nations to threaten to “totally destroy” North Korea if tensions lead to armed conflict.
