Brazilian parliamentary commission rejects ratification of treaty on nuclear weapons

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, or lower house of parliament, has rejected the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) the country signed in 2017, Report informs via TASS.

According to the press service of the lower house of parliament, the decision was made on the recommendation of lawmaker Luis Felipe de Orleans e Braganca.

"If the world were ideal, this idea of the ratification would have been worth considering. But now this proposal looks absolutely ineffective and even illusory amid the more difficult, dynamic, and conflict international system," the press service quoted him as saying.

According to the lawmaker, the treaty restricts the country's right to develop its defense capacities and deterrence posture. He noted that countries that possess nuclear weapons continue improving them and Brazil is yet to decide about its nuclear status in the future.

"After the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed, the world has divided into those who don"t possess such weapons and those who already have them," he said. "We need to decide which group we want to belong to. And, let us be frank, the chance that this treaty one day reached its goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons globally is very thin."

Brazilian lawmaker Julio Lopes told TASS earlier that his country needed to strengthen its armed forces and security amid the ongoing arms race. However, in his words, Brazil doesn't intend to change its status of a non-nuclear state.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted at the United Nations headquarters in New York on July 7, 2017. Brazil was the first to sign it but it needs to be ratified by the country's parliament to come into effect.