Cuba warned today in this city about the very serious threat that the existence of 22,000 nuclear weapons, a rise in military spending, and development of conventional arsenals represent for the survival of mankind.

Last year, military expenditures reached a record high of $1.74 trillion USD, said Ambassador Rodolfo Benitez, Cuban representative at the meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Bans.

Benitez warned that every day these weapons are more sophisticated and deadly, sadly demonstrated in the wars of aggression occurring in different regions of the world in recent years.

This also accentuates the abysmal imbalance between the industrialized and developing countries in the production, possession and trade of conventional weapons, of course, in favor of the former, he said.

"These realities cannot be ignored by the states that are parties to the convention," the ambassador said.

Benitez said in the meeting that his country gives high priority to and actively participates in this convention, and is fully committed to its strict implementation.

In that context, he stated that Cuba deposited on Wednesday, November 14, to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the instruments to ratify the Additional Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons and the Additional Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War.

This decision is another sign of Cuba's firm commitment to multilateralism and international treaties on disarmament and multilaterally negotiated arms control treaties, the ambassador stated.