: The President of the UN conference drafting what could be the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons has expressed confidence that with “the necessary political will” more than 130 countries supporting the initiative can reach agreement by the July 7 target. Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the opening of negotiations on a draft treaty circulated on May 22 that delegates were representing their countries but they were also “united together in historic commitment” to finalising a treaty.
last December, member states approved a resolution calling for negotiations on a treaty that would outlaw nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from nuke-armed nations and their allies.