Vatican City: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has come into effect signed by 86 countries, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
The legally binding instrument is the result of a 2017 United Nations effort to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.
The treaty bans participation in any nuclear weapon activity. It includes “undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten the use of nuclear weapons”, according to the UN. It also prohibits the use of the weapons on national territories.
A ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from Plesetsk facility in north-western Russia in December.Credit:RDM/AP
The United States, Britain, France and other nuclear powers have not signed the treaty and boycotted talks that led to it.
