Malawi ratifies anti-nuclear weapons treaty

Malawi has become the latest country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a pact that includes a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities.

A statement from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said Malawi ratified the Treaty on June 29 2022, just one week after the historic meeting of states parties in Vienna.

The meeting condemned any and all nuclear threats and agreed an ambitious action plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons. It became the 66th state to ratify or accede to the treaty.

It reads: “Malawi was the 14th African State to ratify the treaty, after the Gambia, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Nigeria, Benin, Comoros, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, the Congo, and Cabo Verde.

“An additional 15 African States have signed but not yet ratified the treaty: Algeria, Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.”

People’s Federation for National Peace and Development in Malawi executive director Edward Chaka has since welcomed the ratification.

“We celebrate with the world Malawi’s ratification of the TPNW, considering it a milestone in the history of the nation,” he said.

In an address to the United Nations in September 2021, President Lazarus Chakwera, said he found the continued proliferation and stockpiling of nuclear weapons saddening and frightening

He said: “For a peaceful nation like Malawi, a nation with no history of armed conflict and a track record of taking in tens of thousands of displaced persons fleeing conflict elsewhere, the virtues of warmongering have never occurred to us.

Malawi participated in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 States that voted in favour of its adoption. Emmanuel Fabiano, the then-Minister of Foreign Affairs signed the treaty when it opened for signature on 20 September 2017.