Mexico’s Message
Saúl Zambrano, Minister/ Chargé d'Affaires, ad interim,
Embassy of the United Mexican States
2023 World Conference Against
Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs(Nagasaki, 7 August 2023)••

Good day to you all.
For Mexico, it is an honour to take part in the commemoration of the78th Anniversary of the tragic atomic bombings in Hiroshima andNagasaki.

•Mexico pays tribute to the Japanese people, particularly to thesurvivors of the atomic bombs (Hibakusha), who by raising theirvoices and sharing their testimony have played a key role in the efforts
to raise awareness on the catastrophic humanitarian consequencesof nuclear weapons.

•Hibakusha’s testimonies constitute a historical legacy that is a clarion
call for promoting peace and securing a world free of nuclear
weapons. Therefore, we have to ensure that their thoughts, theirvoices and their enlightening stories are available for present andfuture generations.

•The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have shown that nuclear
weapons do not make any distinction between combatants andcivilians; they do not differentiate gender, age, religion, socialcondition, ideology or nationality. Their effects are indiscriminate.

•The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has also shown that beyond
the immediate death and destruction caused by a detonation, socioeconomic development will be hampered, and the environment will
be damaged. Suffering will be widespread, the vulnerable being themost severely affected. It is imperative to ensure that such a calamity
will never happen again.

•The mere existence of nuclear weapons has been a heavy burden on
societies, but it has helped us in finding the fundamental spaces toprioritize cooperation in a fragmented world, and not to sustain global
security on the intricate and illogical game of the threats of the use ofsuch weapons, which put the very existence of humanity at risk.

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Mexico believes that, in order to achieve nuclear disarmament, all theStates parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (NPT) -the cornerstone of the non-proliferation and nuclear
disarmament regime- must commit and exert all efforts to guarantee
its effective implementation, including taking forward multilateralnegotiations on nuclear disarmament.

•Mexico is convinced that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons (TPNW) is milestone in what has been the long roadtowards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. In particular, it is acomplementary instrument in the international architecture ofnuclear disarmament that contributes to compliance and full
implementation of the NPT, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-BanTreaty (CTBTO), international treaties establishing nuclear-weaponfree zones, and other multilateral efforts.

•In this context, I would like to share some elements on the position of
Mexico, since we will be chairing the Second Meeting of States Parties(2MSP) to the TPNW, to be held in New York, from November 27 toDecember 1.

•Mexico suggested UN headquarters in New York as the venue for themeeting, where most States are represented, to ensure inclusivity andthe broadest participation of States parties, signatories, possible
observer States as well as organized civil society.

•A priority for Mexico's chairmanship is universality: we are urging toredouble efforts to advance the universalization of the treaty. TheTPNW is a young regime that still requires keeping the momentum
and renewed political support. More signatures and ratifications areneeded. In this area, organized civil society, cities, andparliamentarians can support and drive national processes to achievethese goals.

•In this regard, we are convinced that we must also find channels ofcommunication and dialogue with all those States that still havereservations about the instrument; under no circumstances can theprohibition of a category of weapons of mass destruction beconceived as a disruptive or destabilizing element of international
security.

•Although the treaty provides for an effective and efficient institutionalframework, this is still being developed and consolidated. Therefore,
Mexico is promoting actions aiming to the implementation of the2Vienna Plan. The Scientific Advisory Group has been established, its
chair and vice-chair have been appointed and it had its first meeting
last March. The Chairman and his team are working, in coordination
with the informal working groups, to advance the inter-sessional work,
intending to arrive at the meeting of States Parties with concrete
results on the implementation of priority areas.
•The TPNW is intrinsically linked to international humanitarian law andinternational human rights law. Mexico considers it is important topromote synergies between the treaty and these regimes. It isparticularly important to emphasize the illegality of the threat of use
and use of nuclear weapons, as already determined by theInternational Court of Justice in 1996.

•It is of utmost importance that the implementation of the treaty
incorporates the gender perspective comprehensively andcoherently throughout all policies, programs, and projects for itsoperationalization.

•Bearing in mind the current international scenario and the recent
explicit threats of use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear
weapon states, the parties to the TPNW bear a special responsibility
to raising awareness about the fact that nuclear weapons are NOTpart of the solution, but part of the problem. To this end, we count on
the invaluable support of civil society to amplify this message andholding all states accountable.

•You can count on the conviction and continued efforts of Mexico toattain and sustain a nuclear weapons-free world, as it was before 1945.

•It is our responsibility to protect new generations from thecatastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, to makesure that a nuclear weapon detonation, like those which sadly took
place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, never happen again.

•I congratulate you for your efforts and encourage all of you to continue
working together for a world free of nuclear weapons.

•Thank you very much for your kind attention.

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