Venezuela
At the Third Meeting of States Parties (3MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in March 2025, Venezuela renewed its firm commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. ‘We hope that the TPNW will bring us closer to this common goal, while advocating for its strengthening, consolidation, and universalization,’ it said, inviting those States that have not yet signed it to consider doing so ‘as soon as possible, as it is synonymous with peace, stability, and security for all our peoples and nations’.1
TPNW Status
| Key weapons of mass destruction treaties | ||
|---|---|---|
| NUCLEAR WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the TPNW | Yes (Ratified 2018) | |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1975) | |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2002) | |
| Party to an NWFZ | Yes (Ratified 1970, Tlatelolco) | |
| CSA with the IAEA | Yes (In force 1982) | |
| AP with the IAEA | No | |
| BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1978) | |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 1997) | |
| TPNW Art. 1(1) prohibitions: Compliance in 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compliant |
| Possess or stockpile | Compliant | |
| Test | Compliant | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compliant |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compliant |
| (d) | Use | Compliant |
| Threaten to use | Compliant | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compliant |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compliant |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compliant |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2021) |
| Participated in 3MSP (2025) | Yes |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | Yes |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | Yes |
| Average MSP delegation size (% women) | 3 (22%) |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted yes |
| Fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Nuclear facilities | Yes |
| Fissile material production | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
| SQP with the IAEA | No |
Latest developments
At the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Preparatory Committee meeting in April 2025, Venezuela said that ‘the indiscriminate destruction and catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons’ in Hiroshima and Nagasaki eight decades ago ‘must never be repeated’. It warned that ‘a nuclear nuclear arms race’ is under way and called on nuclear-armed States to ‘demonstrate political will to achieve substantive progress on disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, including through accession to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)’.2
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2025, Venezuela described the elimination of nuclear weapons as ‘an ethical imperative and the only option in the face of the risk of total extinction on the planet’. ‘The current nuclear arms race and the security strategies that support it are dangerously leading us to the midnight predicted by the Doomsday Clock,’ it warned, urging all States to sign and ratify the TPNW ‘and other relevant international legal instruments’.3
Venezuela co-sponsored the 2025 UN General Assembly resolution on the TPNW, which welcomed the Treaty’s entry into force and called upon ‘all States that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the Treaty at the earliest possible date’.
Recommendations
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Venezuela should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
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Venezuela should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.
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Venezuela should conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol (AP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).