Equatorial Guinea

Nuclear-weapon-free state

Has signed the TPNW

Has not yet ratified the TPNW

SIGNED

22 September 2022

RATIFIED

IN FORCE

Status

Equatorial Guinea has signed but not yet ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Signature

Simeón Oyono Esono Angue, the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Equatorial Guinea, signed the TPNW at a high-level ceremony in New York on 22 September 2022.

“Today the world needs the promise of a future without the fear of annihilation that nuclear weapons can cause,” he said. “For Equatorial Guinea, the TPNW formalises ... our firm international conviction that any use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, regardless of its justification.”

In October 2022, Equatorial Guinea said that it signed the TPNW based on its commitment “to be a contributor to world peace and security, helping to strengthen world regulations against nuclear weapons and promoting efforts towards their total abolition”.

Simeón Oyono Esono Angue, the minister of foreign affairs of Equatorial Guinea, signs the TPNW in 2022. Photo: Darren Ornitz

Universaliation

Equatorial Guinea has promoted universal adherence to the TPNW, including by consistently voting in favour of an annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”.

Representatives of Equatorial Guinea and ICAN meet in New York in 2022 to discuss the TPNW.

Equatorial Guinea addresses a regional seminar on the universalisation of the TPNW in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2023. Photo: ICAN

TPNW negotiations

Equatorial Guinea participated in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 states that voted in favour of its adoption.

In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, Equatorial Guinea said that “nuclear weapons pose a direct and constant threat to all of humanity”, and this conference offers us a “unique and vital opportunity” to eliminate such weapons.

In 2016, Equatorial Guinea voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence negotiations on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Before the negotiations

Prior to the adoption of the TPNW in 2017, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not subject to a comprehensive, globally applicable treaty prohibition. Equatorial Guinea supported calls in the UN General Assembly fill this “legal gap”.

Further information

Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor