The Philippines, Japan, and Australia urged the international community to start negotiations on a treaty to curb fissile materials that can be weaponized for war.

In a high-level event co-hosted by the three countries at the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 19, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo joined Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong to call for the conclusion of a fissile material cut-off treaty that will obligate states to dismantle fissile materials for military purposes, as well as putting a cap on further expansion of nuclear weapons stockpile.

Speaking before other world leaders and foreign ministers, Manalo highlighted the Philippine commitment in the rejection of nuclear weapons and pursuit of nuclear disarmament.

“The Filipino people have always been unequivocal in our rejection of nuclear weapons. The Philippines is therefore proud to stand with Japan and Australia to breathe life into long standing international efforts towards a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT),” he said.

The high-level event coincides with the thirtieth year since the General Assembly urged the Conference on Disarmament to negotiate an FMCT. Over the years, the Philippines has been consistent in its position that an FMCT must be negotiated without preconditions and without delay, and that pending the entry into force of an FMCT, arrangements be undertaken to establish a five-year moratorium on additional facilities for uranium enrichment and plutonium separation.

“It is disappointing that this remarkable achievement is being reversed in the Asia-Pacific. The starting point of our collective journey towards nuclear disarmament, after all, begins in that region ? in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The stories of the victims of nuclear horrors from these places inspired global action towards landmark instruments like the NPT, the CTBT, and the TPNW,” Manalo emphasized.

In his address before the UN General Assembly last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. highlighted the danger that nuclear weapons pose, calling these “an existential threat despite our efforts to build norms that resoundingly prohibit them.” The President also called for the continued commitment of the international community to decrease the global stockpile of nuclear weapons. DFA