The Philippines has expressed deep concern over the looming “new arms race,” including the use of nuclear weapons, amid the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
This prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs through Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and International Economic Relations Carlos Sorreta to encourage other members of the United Nations to help each other “to take a step closer in advancing our common goal” due to a “very challenging” geopolitical environment the world is currently facing.
“As what President (Ferdinand) Marcos conveyed at the General Assembly last week, ‘unity is possible even in the most trying circumstances,’” Sorreta said, in a Philippine statement he delivered during the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.
Sorreta stressed that “nuclear weapons do not promote security” because “no aspiration or ambition could ever justify their use or possession.”
Citing the President’s pronouncements, he said the Philippines rejects “the notion that nuclear disarmament obligations are subservient to unilateral and subjective assessments of their own views of the current international security situations.”
The DFA official also warned that “nuclear weapons coupled with emerging technologies and the vulnerabilities of cyber capabilities could mean that we are even closer to the total elimination of (the) human race.”
“Nuclear weapons states parties to the NPT (Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty) must reduce the salience of nuclear weapons in their security policies and doctrines,” Sorreta asserted.
“They must “commit to the qualitative and quantitative reduction of all nuclear stockpiles, uphold the highest level of transparency and accountability including through enhanced reporting and reporting mechanisms until the total elimination of nuclear weapons is achieved,” he said.
Joining the international community in commemorating and promoting the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, the Philippines places the highest importance to its call, the DFA official stressed.
