Latest developments
Slovakia voted against the UN General Assembly resolutions on the TPNW in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In 2018, Slovakia’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs declared that 'we do not believe that the mere existence of a legally binding international instrument banning nuclear weapons will attain the goal of zero. No shortcuts can lead us toward this direction. That is the reason, why Slovakia is not in the position to support the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.' The former Slovakian foreign minister Juraj Schenk was among the signatories to an open letter in September 2020 calling on current leaders in umbrella states to 'show courage and boldness' and join the TPNW. See: bit.ly/2mjLzvs, bit.ly/2TwCaOp.
Recommendations
- Slovakia should ensure that nuclear weapons do not have a role in its national defence plans and security policies. It should renounce the retention and potential use of nuclear weapons on its behalf, for instance through a declaratory statement, and refrain from endorsing future alliance statements in support of weapons of mass destruction.
- Slovakia should urgently sign and ratify the TPNW, and encourage other states to adhere to the Treaty. Until it is in a position to do so, it should welcome the TPNW as a valuable contribution to the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture, attend its meetings of states parties as an observer, and work with its states parties on practical steps towards disarmament.
