MELBOURNE -- Australia's decision to skip recent negotiations on a global nuclear weapons ban appears at odds with domestic public opinion at a time when an art exhibition highlighting the country's dark past as a nuclear testing ground is touring nationally.
In late March, representatives from more than 115 countries gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York to negotiate a legally binding nuclear weapons ban that advocates say is the most promising step toward nuclear disarmament since the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was adopted almost five decades ago. Presiding over the negotiations, Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez of Costa Rica said on March 30 that the adoption of a treaty during the second round of talks scheduled to begin in June was "an achievable goal."
