The Mexican government welcomes the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at United Nations headquarters today. When in force, the new treaty will prohibit the production, possession, use and transfer of nuclear weapons to any State that accedes to it. After adoption, each State will decide whether to sign and ratify the treaty, which will enter into force after being ratified by 50 countries.
This is the first time that a legally-binding international instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons has been adopted since nuclear weapons came into being in the mid-twentieth century. Of the 129 member States participating in the UN Conference to negotiate the treaty, 122 countries, including Mexico, voted to adopt it.
Adoption of the treaty is in line with Mexico's longstanding and well-known diplomatic tradition of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. It strengthens the legal framework established by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) of 1968, and the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which created the first Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1967.
The conference to negotiate and adopt the treaty took place at United Nations headquarters in New York in March and June 2017, the culmination of a process that began at the 2012 UN General Assembly.