Statement by the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Sérgio França Danese, at the General Debate of the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - March 5th, 2025

Mr. President,

Brazil signed the TPNW because it is fully in line with my country's own longstanding views on the need for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

We have defended complete nuclear disarmament from the very first negotiations of the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee, to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which prohibited nuclear weapons in our region, to our own accession to the NPT in 1998, which was predicated on a renewed global commitment to nuclear disarmament.

The TPNW is both nondiscriminatory and built on an unequivocal legal commitment to complete nuclear disarmament. Its timely adoption came to fill an unacceptable gap in the disarmament and non-proliferation regime.

Mr. President,

The TPNW has brought new impetus to disarmament discussions. The Treaty coming into force in 2021 was a historic event, but it has not stopped there.

The TPNW has used its advisory organs and consultative processes to advance the conversation around nuclear disarmament in very concrete ways. The Scientific Advisory Group has already done important work on Nuclear Disarmament Verification, while the discussions around victim assistance and environmental remediation are both timely and necessary.

Mr. President,

Unfortunately, we have no shortage of security concerns.

Nuclear arsenal reduction commitments and processes have been halted or reversed. All nuclear possessor States are modernizing their nuclear arsenals and means of delivery, while new technologies complicate strategic calculations and nuclear alliances retrench their positions, contradicting the letter and the spirit of the NPT.

It is true that bipolar and even tripolar rivalries between major nuclear powers have increased, yet our worries do not end there.

Today, we must also contend with a wide variety of regional nuclear powers, with opaque nuclear doctrines. Threats of use of nuclear weapons have become a common gesture as countries deal with their foreign challenges.

Nuclear use by any actor, of any size, would lead both to further escalation and to irreversible damage to mankind and to our environment, the extent of which is becoming clearer thanks to the work of this Treaty and its members.

Our task is to make clear that we understand the security dynamics and the risks they entail - perhaps even better than nuclear armed States, who have incentives to downplay these risks.

Mr. President,

We reiterate that the TPNW is complementary to the NPT. The renewed emphasis it brought to disarmament bodes well for the regime.

As we prepare for the next NPT review conference as well as for this treaty’s review conference, TPNW’s basis and the ideas discussed in the third MSP inspire us to work towards avoiding the devastating humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.

Brazil will continue to play a constructive role in this process and in all processes towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, just as we always have.

I thank you.