World Bulletin
 | | Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will represent the US tomorrow when parties to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty hold a high-level conference. UNA-NCA photo. |
The Test-Ban Treaty, Inching Toward Full Approval
By Jim Wurst
Sept. 23 -- The drive for a total ban on the testing of nuclear weapons should get a long-awaited kick-start tomorrow when the parties to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty hold a high-level conference to promote the entry into force of the treaty.
This will be the first such meeting, held at the United Nations, since the Obama administration took office, pleading to change course from the Bush administration and renew its support for the treaty. In the clearest possible signal of intent, the US seat – which was unoccupied during the Bush years – will be taken by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
On the same day that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty conference takes place, the Security Council will meet at heads-of-state level – with President Obama presiding – on the topic of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The draft resolution for the summit, written by the United States, includes supportive language for the treaty calling on “all States to refrain from conducting a nuclear test explosion and to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, thereby bringing the treaty into force at an early date.”
Under normal circumstances, the test-ban treaty should have become international law years ago. Usually, a treaty enters into force when a designated number of states ratify it. This treaty has 149 states parties; however, it is unique among arms control treaties in that a specific list of 44 countries must ratify it for it to enter into force. Those 44 are the nuclear weapon states and other states with advanced nuclear technology as defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Many of those 44 ratified quickly – the European Union, for example, speaks with one voice in favor of the treaty. But other ratifications have come in slowly. The states parties even have a roving ambassador whose sole mandate is to convince the holdouts to sign. Only 9 of the 44 states have not ratified the treaty: US, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Egypt, North Korea and Indonesia.
The India-Pakistan and Israel-Iran-Egypt ratifications are naturally tied up in their respective regional strategic equations. But Tibor Tóth, the executive secretary for the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, is optimistic.
At a news conference on Sept. 18, he said, “We see a momentum building … The ratification of the United States will play a leadership role, and that leadership role is important.”
Tóth was confident that nations would view the test-ban treaty as advantageous for “their own security perspective.” He said: “My feeling is that this treaty … is something which is needed, not just globally but for different regions. The same argument which moved [Henry] Kissinger and [George] Shultz to re-evaluate the role of nuclear weapons —where they concluded that these weapons are not assets anymore but liabilities in the context of the sub-state actors — this argument [also] works for subregions” like India and Pakistan.
Some 30 countries will be represented at the foreign minister or deputy foreign minister level. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Messenger of Peace, actor Michael Douglas, will also address the two-day conference.
Jim Wurst is a journalist based at the United Nations, specializing in arms control issues.
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