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By Kamila Aliyeva

More than 50 countries have signed the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in New York during a high-level ceremony held in the margins of the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly on September 20.

The document was first signed by President of Brazil, Michel Temer. The ceremony is attended by several heads of state and dozens of foreign ministers, including Austria, Ireland and Cuba, Tass reported.

The new treaty, which was formally adopted on July 7, bans the use, threatened use, production, development, stationing, and testing of nuclear weapons; forbids assistance will all prohibited activities, and requires the provision of assistance to victims and remediation of polluted land from nuclear weapon use and testing.

With the adoption of the treaty, nuclear weapons join biological and chemical weapons as weapons of mass destruction that have been declared illegal under international law.

The Treaty will enter into force 90 days after it is signed and ratified by 50 countries.

The treaty negotiations were boycotted by nuclear-armed states, including Russia, Great Britain, China, U.S. and France. Two hours after the adoption of the document, the United Kingdom, the United States and France issued a joint statement in which they said they would never become its participants.

In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow will not ratify the treaty, because it contradicts the national interests of the country.

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