UNITED NATIONS: A ministerial conference on Thursday pressed the nine states which have yet to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to do so to ensure the pact can come into force.
The call was made as a two-day conference on the CTBT got under way here a day after Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became the 150th state to ratify the pact.
The treaty, which bans any nuclear blasts for military or civilian purposes, was signed in 1996 by 71 states, including the five main nuclear powers, and now has 181 member states.
North Korea, India and Pakistan have not signed it and all three have carried out nuclear tests since 1996.
Another six countries – the United States, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, China and Egypt – have signed but not ratified the pact.
As the conference gathering some 100 foreign ministers got underway, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged all states to sign and ratify the pact.
Pending the entry into force, I call upon states to honor a nuclear-weapon-test moratorium and to refrain from acts contrary to the object and purpose of the treaty, Ban said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who co-chaired Thursday s session, also appealed to the nine states which have yet to ratify the pact to do so, so the treaty can come into force.
With their ratification, they will send a message of hope by strengthening the international non-proliferation regime and collective security, he added.
The ministers then adopted a statement urging an immediate stop to all nuclear testing pending adoption of the treaty by all countries.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling on all states to refrain from conducting a nuclear test explosion and to sign and ratify the CTBT, thereby bringing the treaty into force at an early date.
The vote came at an unprecedented summit on nuclear non-proliferation which was chaired by US President Barack Obama. -AFP
