Transcript
"In recent months the dangers posed by nuclear weapons have been driven home making this event timelier than ever."
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a world free of nuclear weapons is a global vision that requires a global response.
"The only world that is safe from the use of nuclear weapons is a world that is completely free of the nuclear weapons themselves."
Hundreds of nuclear weapons tests were carried out by the United States, France and Britain in the Pacific from 1946 to 1962. The Marshall Islands was the focus of US tests and its foreign minister John Silk said they continue to struggle with that legacy.
"It will always remain our fervent hope that such weapons of mass destruction will never again be tested or unleashed and that all nuclear armed nations will have the necessary political will to disarm."
Despite this strong sentiment, the Marshalls is yet to sign the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons as they carefully weigh up the legal implications of doing so on their compact of free association with the US. Other Pacific nations like Samoa have no such qualms and its prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi proudly announced their accession.
"The conventional narrative that the possession of nuclear weapons will act as deterrents to make the world a safer place to live is not borne out by the current realities. Otherwise the developments in the Korean Peninsula would not have happened at all."
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un this month threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific in response to US President Donald Trump's threat at the UN General Assembly to destroy his country. It sparked outrage from Pacific leaders. Solomon Islands' prime minister Manasseh Sogavare was among those condemning North Korea.
"We are ocean people the sea is our sanctuary. It is the foundation of our heritage. Therefore we denounce any pollution and contamination of our ocean that our Pacific peoples depend on for our livelihoods."
Palau's president Tommy Remengesau said it was in light of the legacy of the Pacific nuclear tests he joined the call to ban nuclear weapons.
"I must give credit to the leaders of my country who over thirty years ago recognised the threat of nuclear weapons and banned the use test and storage of nuclear weapons in Palau's constitution. In their honor I signed this treaty."
Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, Palau, Tuvalu and New Zealand are the countries in the Pacific who have signed on so far. But for all the signatures in the world, making this nuclear-free vision a reality comes down to nine states who among them possess more than 16000 nuclear weapons. They are the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
