Manila bats for cooperation in global nuclear testing monitoring system
THE PHILIPPINES has vowed to boost cooperation with the international community in maintaining and improving the International Monitoring System, intended to keep an eye on and ensure the world is free from nuclear testing, according to the Philippine Permanent Mission to Vienna. Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative Evangelina A. Bernas led discussions of Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban […]
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
THE PHILIPPINES has vowed to boost cooperation with the international community in maintaining and improving the International Monitoring System, intended to keep an eye on and ensure the world is free from nuclear testing, according to the Philippine Permanent Mission to Vienna.
Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative Evangelina A. Bernas led discussions of Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission from Oct. 16 to 17 at the Vienna International Center to tackle the body’s plans to maintain this watchdog system, it said in a statement.
“Ms. Bernas found consensus during the deliberations of important issues of the Group, including those on financial and budgetary decisions, the indicative program for 2025, and the long-term sustainment of the International Monitoring System (IMS) network,” according to the mission.
The CTBTO is an organization part of the United Nations system that carries out programs that ensure no nuclear explosions occur anywhere in the world through monitoring.
It was born out of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo has been supportive of calls for a “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula to maintain peace, stability and economic progress.
In 2021, the Senate ratified UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, making the Philippines the 53rd nation to adopt the treaty. The treaty, signed by 86 countries, took effect after it was ratified by at least 50 states.
The treaty bars nations from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons.
Mr. Manalo has said the country is pushing the creation of international guidelines on the ethical use of autonomous weapon systems powered by artificial intelligence, saying their improper use could risk innocent lives.
Autonomous weapons are programmed to kill a specific target. The weapon is deployed to an environment where it searches for the target using sensor data, such as facial recognition, according to autonomousweapons.org. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
