Monday, 31 August 2026
Presenter: H.E. Jayantha Jayasuriya
Location: New York
Statement by H.E. Jayantha Jayasuriya, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at the High-Level Plenary Meeting to Commemorate and Promote the International Day against Nuclear Tests
31 August 2026
Mr. President Excellencies Distinguished Delegates,
Sri Lanka is pleased to join in the commemoration of the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
The purpose of this day is clear: to keep the world’s attention focused on why nuclear testing must end, once and for all.
For more than eight years, no nuclear test explosion has been detected anywhere in the world. That is real progress, but it is fragile. To make it last, it needs to be written into law,
through a ban on all nuclear-test explosions that is binding, verifiable, and applies to everyone.
Mr. President
The security environment has grown more dangerous, and the agreements that once kept nuclear arsenals in check are falling away. The recent Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty concluded without agreement. These are worrying development.
Our own position has never wavered Sri Lanka signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-TestBan Treaty in 1996, within days of its adoption, and ratified it in 2023. Also, we acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2023.
Against this background, Sri Lanka would ask two things.
First, that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty be brought into force We urge the remaining States whose ratifications are still needed to take that step without further delay.
Second, that until the Treaty enters into force, every nuclear-armed State keeps its testing moratorium in place.
None of this is beyond reach; these are practical steps that would make us all safer.
Mr. President
A nuclear test is never a harmless act. Wherever they have been conducted, communities continue to live with the consequences: contaminated land they can no longer use,
long-term health impacts, and homes they were forced to abandon.
The purpose of a nuclear test is to refine weapons designed to destroy human life on an unimaginable scale. We must never allow the world to return to nuclear testing.
In closing, Sri Lanka calls all States to uphold the global norm against nuclear testing, to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force, and to keep working, with
renewed determination, toward a world without nuclear weapons.
I thank you, Mr. President