UNITED NATIONS \u2014 Fifty countries on Wednesday signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, a pact that the world\u2019s nuclear powers spurned but supporters hailed as a historic agreement nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou are the states that are showing moral leadership in a world that desperately needs such moral leadership today,\u201d Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said as a signing ceremony began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the day was out, 50 states as different as Indonesia and Ireland had put their names to the treaty; others can sign later if they like. Guyana, Thailand and the Vatican also have already ratified the treaty, which needs 50 ratifications to take effect among the nations that back it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They would be barred from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, otherwise acquiring, possessing or stockpiling nuclear weapons \u201cunder any circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven decades after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during World War II \u2014 the only use of nuclear weapons \u2014 there are believed to be about 15,000 of them in the world today. Amid rising tensions over North Korea\u2019s nuclear and missile tests, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the threat of a nuclear attack is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis treaty is an important step towards the universally held goal of a world free of nuclear weapons,\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supporters of the pact say it\u2019s time to push harder toward eliminating atomic weapons than nations have done through the nearly 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under its terms, non-nuclear nations agreed not to pursue nukes in exchange for a commitment by the five original nuclear powers \u2014 the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China \u2014 to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee other states\u2019 access to peaceful nuclear technology for producing energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 120 countries approved the new nuclear weapons ban treaty in July over opposition from nuclear-armed countries and their allies, who boycotted negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S., Britain and France said the prohibition wouldn\u2019t work and would end up disarming their nations while emboldening \u201cbad actors,\u201d in U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley\u2019s words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has called the treaty \u201cwishful thinking\u201d that is \u201cclose to irresponsible.\u201d The nuclear powers have suggested instead strengthening the nonproliferation treaty, which they say has made a significant dent in atomic arsenals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazil was the first country to sign onto the ban Wednesday, followed by nations from Algeria to Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose who still hold nuclear arsenals, we call upon them to join this date with history,\u201d Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis said as he prepared to sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifty countries on Wednesday signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, a pact that the world\u2019s nuclear powers spurned but supporters hailed as a historic agreement nonetheless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":80332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[526],"class_list":["post-44218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RROKGU4U45BQFMMBH25E3YYFEU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/09\/20\/over-40-nations-ink-nuclear-ban-treaty-opposed-by-big-powers\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n