Kazakhstan has become the 57th nation to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons following the signature of UN Ambassador on March 2.
The move follows a recent speech by President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the United Nations where he challenged the mindset of the nuclear weapons states and urged more international cooperation.
Kazakhstan inherited the world’s fourth largest stockpile of weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the government instead chose a different path and was instrumental in the creation of the nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia.
Over a period spanning 1949-1991 the Soviet Union carried out more than 450 nuclear tests in Kazakhstan, leaving behind the catastrophic humanitarian consequences which are at the heart of the initiative which led to the new Treaty.
Christian CND congratulated Kazakhstan on the decision to sign the Treaty, and we pray that the Kazakh government would have courage to ratify the Treaty quickly and that many other states would sign and ratify in the coming weeks and months.
