Eight countries slow CTBT enforcement - Moscow
MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax) - The prospect of launching the regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in full remains dim, which is worrying Moscow.
"One has to acknowledge that 17 years after the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was opened for signing, the prospect of its full-scale launch remains unclear, which arouses well founded concern. We think the brunt of responsibility for the future of the CTBT treaty rests with the remaining eight countries on the List of 44, that slow its enforcement. We are urging them to follow Indonesia's example and join the Treaty as soon as possible without any preconditions," Alexei Karpov, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Security and Disarmament Department, told the 8th conference on the CTBT enforcement in New York.
Karpov's speech was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on September 27.
The Russian diplomat welcomed "the United States' plans, confirmed repeatedly, to launch the treaty's ratification." "We expect the U.S. to take concrete steps in this direction. We proceed from the belief that the Treaty is as important for the United States as for other countries. Without it, the international-legal system of security, which all of us want to become stronger, cannot be complete and effective," he said.
As a representative of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapon's depository-state, Karpov urged Middle East countries to ratify the CTBT treaty as soon as possible. "This would become an important trust-building measure in the region, and help create a zone freed from weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means," Karpov said.
