By Eli Leadham, NuclearBan.US
On September 26th, 2025, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached a significant milestone, underscored by Kyrgyzstan signing and Ghana ratifying the treaty. Currently, there are 95 signatories and 74 states parties. With a majority of the world’s countries having officially signed, ratified, or acceded to the TPNW, this marks a stark shift. Approved by the United Nations a little over eight years ago and in force for less than five, the treaty remains relatively young, but its influence is expanding.
The TPNW comprehensively bans nuclear weapons, outlawing their development, possession, testing, use, and even threats of use. It is important for UN member states to both sign and ratify the TPNW as signing signals political support and helps build global momentum, reinforcing the norm that nuclear weapons are unacceptable, while ratification makes that commitment legally binding, requiring states to align national laws and policies with the treaty and allowing them to fully participate in its implementation. Together, widespread signing and ratification increase the treaty’s credibility, isolate pro-nuclear states, and translate moral opposition into enforceable international law.
In April of last year, Kyrgyzstan announced its decision to join the TPNW at the meeting of the third preparatory committee of the review conference for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But it was in September, Zheenbek Kulubaev, Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed the treaty at the United Nations.
“Kyrgyzstan firmly supports the efforts of the international community to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons,” the delegation’s statement said. “We are committed to ensuring future generations live without the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.”
In Ghana, the country signed the TPNW in September 2017 and participated in the first Meeting of States Parties and the Africa Regional Seminar on the TPNW, both in 2022. However, at the third meeting of states parties to the TPNW in March, Ghana stated its commitment to ratify the treaty, underscoring its long-standing support for the Treaty of Pelindaba, which established Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone. It was Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Foreign Minister, who announced his country’s ratification, bringing the total to 99 of 197 eligible states that have taken legal action under the treaty. That message was echoed in Africa, where Ghana’s ratification was hailed as a landmark moment. Theodora Williams, Anti of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa, described it as a declaration that real security lies in cooperation, not annihilation.