Humanity’s Future Depends on Collective Security Efforts

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vijitha Herath, has underscored the urgent global need for enduring peace, security, and strengthened multilateral cooperation, warning that rising geopolitical tensions have created deadlocks in global disarmament efforts and posed serious challenges to international humanitarian law.

Minister Herath said that safeguarding the future of humanity must be treated as a paramount priority, stressing that trust and mutual respect are essential foundations for effective decision‑making in multilateral forums. He reaffirmed that Sri Lanka remains committed to ensuring a secure and stable world for future generations.

Highlighting Sri Lanka’s longstanding role in nuclear disarmament, he recalled the country’s contribution to the 1964 Non‑Aligned Movement Summit in Cairo, which called for the establishment of nuclear‑free zones. He reiterated that Sri Lanka continues to strongly support such initiatives, particularly in the Middle East, and emphasized that total elimination and non‑proliferation remain the only guarantees against the use of nuclear weapons.

Sri Lanka also urged that non‑nuclear‑weapon states must receive unconditional, non‑discriminatory, legally binding negative security assurances, achievable through the work of the Conference on Disarmament.

On humanitarian disarmament, Minister Herath noted that Sri Lanka remains an active partner in humanitarian demining and currently serves as a senior member of the victim assistance committee of the Anti‑Personnel Mine Ban Convention. He further reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s continued commitment to the Cluster Munitions Convention, which the country presided over in 2019.

Recognizing the rapidly evolving threat landscape, the Minister warned of the impact of emerging technologies that have already reshaped the global disarmament architecture while putting international humanitarian law at significant risk. In this context, he said Sri Lanka has been advocating for the early start of negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prohibit lethal autonomous weapon systems.
He also addressed growing threats to outer space security, stressing that Sri Lanka, long a supporter of disarmament in outer space,continues to back negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prevent an arms race beyond Earth.

Minister Herath concluded by affirming Sri Lanka’s readiness to work with all nations to ensure global efforts toward a safer world are accelerated and achieved at the earliest opportunity.