Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke in New York on May 4 to the Seventh Review Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty.

The Vatican is one of the 188 States Parties to the Treaty and adhered to it in 1971, said Vatican Information Service while giving details of the speech.

Archbishop Migliore said the Vatican was "convinced” that the treaty was important in creating a system of disarmament under effective international control.

But that system would be possible only if the treaty were “completely observed both in detail and in its entirety."

Over the years, the Vatican official said, "the treaty has become a cornerstone in the global security framework since it has, to some extent, helped slow the arms race."

It entered into force in the 1970s, when there were “profound social and geopolitical changes. An awareness began to grow of the close correlation and interdependence between national and international security, while new challenges sprang up, like transnational terrorism and the illegal spread of materials for making weapons of mass destruction."

Archbishop Migliore said the treaty was “the only multilateral legal instrument currently available, intended to bring about a nuclear weapons free world” and it “must not be allowed to be weakened.”

“Humanity deserves no less than the full cooperation of all States on this grave matter," he said adding that the “non-proliferation side of the NTP must be strengthened" and "compliance with its nuclear disarmament provisions is also required."

“The time has gone, for finding ways to a 'balance in terror': the time has come to re-examine the whole strategy of nuclear deterrence,” he said.

He also told the gathering that nations “must always remember that the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated."