Vietnam is working together with other ASEAN countries to ensure the region is free from nuclear weapons and calls on nuclear weapon states worldwide to recognise the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty.

Deputy Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to the UN, Pham Vinh Quang, delivered the statement at the UN Disarmament Commission’s plenary debate in New York on April 7.

He stated that Vietnam supports the process of disarmament, especially nuclear disarmament, and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, confirming the country’s full backing of bans on the development, manufacturing, equipping, testing, stockpile, transfer and use or threats to use nuclear weapons, as well as total elimination of those destructive weapons.

The Vietnamese diplomat urged the UN Disarmament Commission to work out a comprehensive and balanced agenda and soon set up an ad hoc committee to accelerate the disarmament of nuclear weapons.

As the world is dealing with the complexity that requires the gathering of new momentums for speeding up the settlement of urgent issues related to elimination of nuclear threats, disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the world community should make more specific efforts to absolutely disarm nuclear weapons, Quang said

At the debate, the UN called on the international community to take practical actions to realise the full disarmament of nuclear weapons and at the same time, ensure countries’ rights to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Representatives of developing countries voiced that the complete disarmament of nuclear weapons and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes are pressing needs to make the world safer and enhance the value of the global fight against destructive weapons.

Countries possessing a large stock of nuclear weapons must take responsibility for stepping up both disarmament and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, they elaborated.

Non-aligned nations at the UN, meanwhile, emphasised the undeniable rights of all countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and criticised the “double standards” imposed on developing countries in this field.

Source: VNA