Mr. President,

I am pleased to offer my government's congratulations for your election to direct the work of the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. I feel sure that your personal qualities, as well as the well known history of Mexico in matters related to peace, non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, will contribute to reassert our commitment to the lofty aims of the treaty and to ensuring that it will soon enter into force.

I also wish to express my gratitude for the confidence deposited in Peru to occupy the Vice Presidency corresponding to Latin America and the Caribbean in this Conference.

Mr. President,

For more than thirty years, my country has pursued a policy that sought the banning of nuclear tests. Peru is also devoted a large part of its diplomatic efforts towards the objective of accomplishing a complete general disarmament and non-proliferation.

In accordance with its pacifist tradition, Peru has adhered to all the international documents on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The exercising of this juridical and political responsibility not only presumes a coherent and systematic approach in this subject, but also an active participation in every international forum related to these issues.

Convinced that it should promote a world free from nuclear weapons, my country actively participated in the negotiations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that took place within the framework of the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, between the years 1993 and 1996.

I would like to emphasize within this context, that Peru was the first Latin American country to ratify the above mentioned treaty in November 1997 and the second on the list of 44 States listed in Annex II of the Treaty.

Mr. President,

Through our Permanent Delegation in Vienna, Peru has occupied on four occasions the Vice-presidency and Coordination the Preparatory Commission of the Organization on behalf of the signatory States of Latin America and the Caribbean in. It has also been actively participating in the establishment of the international system of verification, which is the cornerstone of the Treaty.

In this order of ideas, my government offers all its assistance to the Preparatory Commission for the operation on its territory of two auxiliary seismological stations, located at Nafta and Cajamarca. This operation is supported by a facilities agreement, signed in Vienna on March 14 of this year, which is currently in the process of being ratified.

Mr. President,

Among Peru's activities to promote the entry into force of the Treaty, we would like to emphasize that in November 2000, Peru hosts the "Regional Workshop on International Cooperation of the Organization of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and National Processes of Implementation/Ratification of the Treaty". This event gathered thirty three representatives and experts from twenty Latin America and the Caribbean countries as well as experts from Canada, Spain and the United States of America and representatives of following international agencies:

The Agency for the Proscription of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Peru has also submitted and co-sponsored different resolutions approved within the framework of the last two General Assemblies of the Organization of American States for the purpose of promoting the entry into force of the Treaty.

Mr. President,

Since the 1999 Vienna Conference, there has been important progress in the ratification process. Nevertheless, the treaty will only be effective when it becomes a universal document. Therefore, Peru adds its will to that of those States that believe that this conference will encourage its entry into force.

In the present situation of international relations, in which it has not been possible to exclude crisis or conflicts, the full validity of the principles that should govern international coexistence has been demonstrated by the coordinated action of the States and the respect for international documents, assuming the responsibilities that they imply.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is not an exception, particularly because its basic principles and obligations are an imperative to guarantee universal peace and security.

Mr. President,

Mexico developed pioneering ideas on this subject more than thirty years ago, that led to the Tlatelolco Treaty, which established the first nuclear weapon free zone of the world. Peru, along with other countries of the region actively joined by this line of thought and action, deciding to commit itself to de-nuclearization and the use of nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes, according to the purposes and principles of the constitutional charters of the United Nations and of the Organization of American States.

Today, we find ourselves here once more committed to join the international community efforts in favor of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, one of whose concrete steps would be the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

That is why, Mr. President, Peru fully supports the final declaration, which we will approve at the end of this conference.

Thank you.
 
 

Sources

• http://www.un.org/webcast/ctbt/statements/peruE.htm