Topic: 2025 – No First Use Policies and Nuclear Disarmament
Country: Chile
Delegate Name: Michael Fuger
Nuclear disarmament has a long history at the UN. In fact, nuclear disarmament was the subject of the first resolution back in 1946. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into effect in 1970, to prevent more states from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was negotiated in 2017 and 74 states are currently parties to it. China and India currently have no first use policies, promising that they will only use nuclear weapons to retaliate for a previous attack. The rest of the nuclear states do not have these policies. Non-nuclear states also cannot have no first use policies, as they do not have any nuclear weapons to use, and total nuclear disarmament is more in their interests.
The Republic of Chile is fully committed to nuclear disarmament. Chile is not a nuclear state, and is a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the Treaty of Tlatelolco. Latin American countries have long led nuclear disarmament efforts, and Chile certainly is a part of this. Chile regularly sponsors resolutions at the United Nations calling for universal ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Chile has long supported the effort to make Latin America nuclear-free, and ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1974. Chile believes that funds used in nuclear programs would be better used for international cooperation in areas such as education or environmental protection. Chile emphasizes the importance of nuclear disarmament as essential to the survival of humanity. Furthermore, we believe that nuclear weapons are illegal because of their incompatibility with humanitarian law.
Chile stresses the importance of international cooperation on nuclear disarmament. All nuclear states must commit to complete nuclear disarmament in a defined period of time. We would also like to expand the nuclear-free zone concept from South America to other regions. An argument we believe should bring nuclear states to our point of view relates to the huge cost of maintaining nuclear arsenals. Chile encourages countries to use these funds to cooperate on efforts involving the environment, education, or other important areas, instead of supporting a destructive arms race.
