UN commemorates 10th anniversary of Kazakhstan-initiated International Day against Nuclear Tests

AKIPRESS.COM - The UN General Assembly has marked the 10th anniversary of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the Ministry of Forewign Affairs of Kazakhstan reported.
The plenary session was convocated by María Fernanda Espinosa, President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 73rd session with participation of the UN Secretary General António Guterres.
Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said he hoped the day would "inspire countries to take concrete measures that will allow us to finally reach our objective of a world free from the dangers of nuclear testing", noting at the meeting marking the occasion that there needed to be an "unmistakable message...that our work is not yet done", the UN News reported.
He said he was honoured to have been jointly awarded the Nazarbayev Prize for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World and Global Security, together with the late Yukiya Amano, calling his co-recipient "an outstanding champion for the peaceful use of nuclear energy".
"The only path that will lead us to this noble goal is through the verifiability of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and its universalization", asserted Mr. Zerbo.
The CTBT chief praised the "historic decision" by Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to renounce nuclear arms, send the country's nuclear warheads to Russia, and permanently close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, saying that President Nazarbayev "understood that there was much more to gain from denuclearizing than going forward as a nuclear possessor State".
Guterres noted that the day, which in 1991 marked the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, served two purposes: "First, to pay tribute to the victims of nuclear tests and second, to raise awareness of the continued threat that such tests pose to the environment and international security".
The session was also attended by Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN Kairat Umarov.