Nepal pledges to curb of illicit weapons trade

Himalayan News Service

KATHMANDU: Nepal has shown its commitment to prevent illicit trade of small arms, light weapons and their use. The commitment was put forth in a session of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.

“We fully support the effective implementation of the programme of action to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons,” said Gyan Chandra Acharya, permanent representative to the UN, at the first committee meeting of UNGA in New York yesterday.

Nepal is the host nation to the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific region.

Acharya also said Nepal would support the adoption of a legally binding instrument to regulate international arms transfer for transparency and accountability.

“Nepal stands for prevention of arms race in the outer space and encourages an early conclusion of a Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty,” said Nepal’s permanent mission to the UN in a statement.

He also shared the view that Nepal believed in general and complete disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction, including biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological ones, said the statement. As a member of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and Chemical Weapon Convention, Nepal strongly supports the elimination of nuclear weapons to attain nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation once and for all, stated Acharya.