Belarus Supports Global Community Efforts in the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Belarus will certainly support all efforts of the global community in non-proliferation and prohibition of nuclear weapons. This was stated today by Ivan Grinevich the Adviser of the International Security and Arms Control of the Republic Belarus Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Belarus will certainly support all efforts of the global community in non-proliferation and prohibition of nuclear weapons. This was stated today by Ivan Grinevich the Adviser of the International Security and Arms Control of the Republic Belarus Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Belarus therefore could not but support the initiative of Kazakhstan to proclaim August 29 as International Day of Action against nuclear testing. He also recalled that “in 1996 Belarus joined the Treaty on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and in 2000 the Belarusian parliament ratified it.”

Ivan Grinevich also said that “we welcome the statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that all the nations of the world must redouble their efforts for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear test ban.” The Belarusian diplomat said that “this year Belarus presided over the conference on nuclear disarmament and invited to sign a treaty banning the production of fissile materials.”

In turn, the UN representative in Belarus Antonius Brook said that 29 August 2010 the world will celebrate the first International Day of Action against nuclear testing, initiated by Kazakhstan, and 25 states in the world, including Belarus, have provided funding. UN representative emphasized that from 1945 to 1996 over 2000 nuclear tests were conducted in the world. It is therefore imperative that all countries have signed the CTBT.

Charg? d'affaires of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Republic of Belarus Abduhalykov Farhat said that “Kazakhstan is the problem and consequences of nuclear testing know firsthand. The day of August 29, 1949 witnessed the first nuclear explosion at the test site near Semipalatinsk. In the USSR it was not explained what was happening.” “All the people came and looked at these bright explosions, but the military insisted that there is no danger. People were dying and did not understand what is going on” - he stressed. In 1991, with independence was signed the decree of the President of Kazakhstan to close the Semipalatinsk test site.

Kazakh diplomat stressed that Kazakhstan supports the principled position of the UN General Assembly on the need to ban nuclear testing.