The UN also adopted a resolution calling on member countries to ratify a landmark treaty banning nuclear weapons at an early date for the first time this year since the ban treaty was adopted last summer. Tokyo has penned and put forward a similar motion calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons for the past 25 years in a row, with the latest version endorsed by 162 states. Four countries -- China, North Korea, Russia and Syria -- voted against it and 23 abstained. This year's resolution, amended from last year's text that departed from what many came to regard as standard language, gained a slightly higher level of support with six more countries backing it and one less abstention.