A test launch of a US unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. — AFP/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Peace Committee has recently released a message hailing the entry into force of the “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” (TPNW) on January 22.

As the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively ban the development, testing, production, manufacture, acquisition, possession, stockpiling, transferral, reception, use or threatening to use nuclear weapons – with a view to total elimination, the committee noted that it was an “important milestone” in the fight against nuclear weapons after it was adopted on July 7, 2017.

“This victory is an achievement obtained not only thanks to 51 United Nations members who have ratified the Treaty, but also thanks to the efforts and contributions of all peace movements and peace-loving people in the world,” it said.

However, the committee noted that the total nuclear disarmament remains a “farfetched vision” when the very countries in possession of nuclear weapons have not signed the treaty and many others are still researching, developing, producing, trading, or threatening to use nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

The Việt Nam Peace Committee called on all governments to “join, sign and adopt the Treaty; respect the Treaty as well as international laws and agreements in general, and stop the use of force or threaten the use of force in international relations.”

All disputes and differences need to be addressed via peaceful solutions, it added.

The committee called on all peace movements, people’s organisations and peace lovers in the entire world to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to better fight against nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, to realise a world of peace, stability and sustainable development.

The committee said it was committed to working with other peace-loving forces in the world to make sure that tragedies which took place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki or in Việt Nam and other countries will “never repeat.”

“Hope for peace on Earth,” the committee signed off the message.

Việt Nam was the 10th country in the world to have ratified the Treaty, after Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyễn Phương Nga, head of the Việt Nam Permanent Mission to the United Nations, deposited with the UN Secretary General Việt Nam’s instrument of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on May 17, 2018.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Phạm Bình Minh signed the treaty on September 22, 2017, in the framework of the 72nd UN General Assembly’s High-level Meeting, also one of the first countries to sign the Treaty. — VNS