UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons may be adopted soon

Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told Thursday's opening of a second round of negotiations.

Swiss federal councillor Doris Leuthard speaks during a press conference about the result of the voting on the Energy Strategy 2050, on Sunday, May 21, 2017, in Bern, Switzerland. | AP

UNITED NATIONS: The president of the U.N. conference drafting what could be the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons is expressing confidence that with "the necessary political will" more than 130 countries supporting the initiative can reach agreement by the July 7 target.

Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told Thursday's opening of a second round of negotiations that delegates were representing their countries "but united together in historic commitment that we recognize that we have."

While over 130 countries back the adoption of a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their total elimination, not one of the nine countries believed to possess nuclear weapons is supporting a treaty.

Those countries are the U.S., Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.