UAE renews commitment to nuclear disarmament

The UAE officially endorsed the Austrian Pledge, which calls on all parties to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty to renew their commitments to implementing nucclear disarmament obligations.

ABU DHABI // The UAE renewed its commitment to nuclear disarmament, the country’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on Tuesday.

Hamad Alkaabi said the UAE officially endorsed the Austrian Pledge, which calls on all parties to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to renew their commitment to the “urgent and full implementation of existing nuclear disarmament obligations”.

The pledge also includes identifying and pursuing effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

“The UAE endorsement to this initiative is consistent with the overall Government nuclear policy objectives towards strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation on one hand and to pursue efforts to achieve global nuclear disarmament on another hand,” Mr Alkaabi said. “The UAE participated in all of the three serious conferences on humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and the UAE Government shares the aspiration of a world free of nuclear weapons. It therefore calls for urgent steps to achieve this goal.”

Austria also pledged to work with states and relevant organisations “in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in light of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences and associated risks”.

The pledge paves the way to start negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons this year. Nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction that are not explicitly banned by international law.

Last year, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State, said the UAE was an active member of international initiatives promoting non-proliferating efforts.

“Our non-proliferation credentials are well recognised within the international community,” he said. “And the UAE remains committed to the NPT and to working with our international partners to promote its full implementation.”