Former world leaders urge ratification of nuclear arms ban treaty

NEW YORK - Fifty-six former prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers and defence ministers from 20 Nato countries, plus Japan and South Korea, released an open letter Sunday imploring their current leaders to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the pact negotiated in 2017 that is now just six ratifications shy of the 50 needed to take effect.

The signers included former prime ministers of Canada, Japan, Italy and Poland; former presidents of Albania, Poland and Slovenia; more than two dozen former foreign ministers; and more than a dozen former defence ministers. "All responsible leaders must act now to ensure that the horrors of 1945 are never repeated," the letter urged, referring to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States, the only wartime use of nuclear weapons."Sooner or later, our luck will run out - unless we act. The nuclear weapon ban treaty provides the foundation for a more secure world, free from this ultimate menace."North Korea has hinted at resumed testing of its atomic arsenal.

Nato's current secretary-general, Mr Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, has criticised the treaty, saying it"does not move us closer to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons." Signers of the letter are all from countries that have declined to join the treaty, arguing that the nuclear forces of the United States are essential for their own security. They are Albania, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.

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