By Greg Webb
Global Security Newswire

Cuba yesterday confirmed its intention to ratify two major nuclear arms treaties, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the pact banning nuclear weapons from all of Latin America.

“Cuba has already initiated the necessary national domestic procedures to become a state party of both treaties in the shortest possible time frame,” Cuban Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla told the U.N. General Assembly’s First Committee on disarmament and international security.

NPT

“Our country has decided to become a state party to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as a signal of the clear political will of the Cuban government and its commitment to an effective disarmament process that ensures world peace,” Parrilla said.

His speech reinforced a Cuban statement delivered in September to the General Assembly that said Cuba would “adhere” to the NPT.

Parrilla said, “Cuba intends to actively join the preparatory process of the coming NPT Review Conference and work together with other state parties that share our concerns on the limitations of the treaty and the lack of fulfillment of obligations by the nuclear states.”

Treaty of Tlatelolco

“Cuba will also ratify” the treaty making Latin America and Caribbean a nuclear weapon-free zone, Parrilla said.  Of 33 eligible states, Cuba is the sole state that has not yet ratified the treaty.

The treaty was opened for signature in 1967, but nuclear-capable states did not join the pact until much later.  Rivals Argentina and Brazil joined in 1994 soon after reaching a bilateral nuclear inspections agreement.  Cuba signed the treaty in 1995.

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