A senior U.S. State Department official on Monday touted the benefits of a possible U.N. Security Council resolution against nuclear testing.
With the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty still not entered into force, “we call on all states to maintain the moratoria on nuclear explosive tests. Sustaining these moratoria is in the national security interest of the United States, as well as that of the entire world,” Anita Friedt, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, said during a nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“The United States is engaging Members of the U.N. Security Council on a resolution that would emphasize the importance of maintaining these moratoria and would build support for the completion of the Treaty’s verification regime, based on International Monitoring System,” according to Friedt’s prepared comments.
Aug. 29 is the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, recognizing the anniversary of the 1991 closure of the Soviet Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. That action spurred the United States to enact its own voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing and led to negotiations in the mid-1990s of the test ban treaty.
The accord has been signed by 183 nations and ratified by 164. Another eight of the 44 “Annex 2” nations must ratify the treaty before it can enter into force. The holdouts are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea, and the United States.
President Barack Obama included U.S. ratification of treaty among the nonproliferation goals laid out in his 2009 speech in Prague, but his administration never formally submitted it for approval by the Senate. The administration, though is “engaged in a serious effort to inform the public and Members of Congress of why bringing the CTBT into force and improvements in its verification architecture are in our own national security,” Friedt said.
