Following adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution encouraging nations to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, some Republicans on Friday lambasted what Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called a “toothless resolution” while Democrats lauded its passage as key in reaffirming global norms against nuclear testing.
The U.N. Security Council adopted in a 14-0 decision the nonbinding resolution, which encouraged holdout nations to sign or ratify the treaty and called for an end to nuclear testing worldwide until such a global prohibition is achieved. Although the U.S. Senate rejected treaty ratification in 1999, the country, one of eight holdout nations that still must ratify for the accord to enter into force, has maintained a moratorium on nuclear testing for over two decades. The other seven key outliers are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan.
Congressional Republicans last week introduced legislation in both chambers that would strip U.S. funding for the CTBT Organization’s Preparatory Commission in the event that any binding measures are placed on the U.S. Cotton introduced the Senate bill, which was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) introduced the House version, which was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Cotton said in his Friday statement that “had my colleagues and I not vowed to defund the U.N. agency tasked with compromising our ability to maintain our nuclear weapons arsenal, President Obama would have used the U.N. Security Council to circumvent the constitutional treaty process and greatly harm our ability to deter nuclear-armed adversaries.”
According to Cotton, “Americans understand that decisions regarding our ability to deter nuclear war, protect Americans, and stand up for our allies should be left to the U.S. Congress, not the United Nations.”
“Time and time again President Obama has shown a willingness to ignore the Constitution, bypassing Congress and the American people,” Wilson said in a statement about the House legislation.
Meanwhile, Democrats on Friday lauded passage of the U.N. resolution. Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) issued a joint statement noting that the nonbinding resolution is not a substitute for Senate ratification of the treaty.
States’ national moratoria against explosive testing, they said, “promote international stability and constrain the development of new nuclear weapons.”
The statement recognized the work of the CTBTO in operating the international monitoring system that detects nuclear explosions worldwide. “Attempts to undermine or withhold US contributions from the CTBTO threaten the international community’s ability to monitor destabilizing tests in countries like North Korea and are counterproductive to US national security interests,” the statement said.
