Nearing the end of his time in office, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is again calling for nations to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into force.
“I urge Member States to act now. Those States whose ratification is required to bring the Treaty into force should not wait for others. Even one ratification can act as a circuit breaker,” according to a formal statement from Ban released ahead of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests on Aug. 29. “All States that have not done so should sign and ratify because every ratification strengthens the norm of universality and shines a harsher spotlight on the countries that fail to act.”
The U.N. General Assembly adopted the treaty in 1996, and 164 nations have ratified the prohibition on explosive nuclear testing, including 36 of the 44 “Annex 2” nations whose ratification is mandatory for the accord’s entry into force. That leaves eight Annex 2 holdouts: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and the United States. Of those, only North Korea has conducted nuclear tests in recent years.
The Obama administration hoped to be the circuit breaker, securing Senate ratification of the treaty and thus perhaps nudging nations such as China, India, and Pakistan toward doing the same. But it never formally submitted the treaty for consideration by a skeptical Senate, which had already rejected ratification in 1999. Instead, President Barack Obama reportedly plans to seek a U.N. Security Council resolution urging a halt to nuclear testing, which is a key component in development of nuclear weapons.
After two terms, Ban will step down as U.N. chief at the end of this year.
In separate comments Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council, Ban urged renewed emphasis on global nuclear disarmament.
“Technological advances have made means of production and methods of delivery for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials cheaper, easier and more accessible. Vicious non-state actors that target civilians for carnage are actively seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons,” according to Ban’s prepared comments. “It is therefore particularly disappointing that progress on eliminating nuclear weapons has descended into fractious deadlock. We see the reappearance of some of the discredited arguments that were used to justify nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Those arguments were morally, politically and practically wrong thirty years ago, and they are wrong now.”
