Foreign Ministers Urge Action on CTBT

摘要

More than 50 foreign ministers and senior government representatives met Sept. 27 at the United Nations to call for prompt action toward entry into force of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). One hundred eighty-three states have signed the treaty, and 161 have ratified it. But under the terms of the treaty, eight more listed in Article XIV of the treaty, including the United States and China, must ratify it to achieve entry into force. This year's conference on facilitating entry into force, the eighth such meeting held since 1999, adopted a final declaration reaffirming the participants' "determination to take concrete steps towards early entry into force" and pledging "support for bilateral, regional, and multilateral outreach initiatives" to that end. The conference did not produce a work plan for such an effort.