U.S. State Department officials gave their assurances Tuesday that the United Nations Security Council resolution the administration is preparing to strengthen the global moratoria on nuclear explosive testing will be legally nonbinding and is not an attempt to bypass the U.S. Senate, as congressional Republicans have argued.
Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said at the Stimson Center that the proposed Security Council resolution is intended to encourage ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), “the longest sought, hardest fought prize in the history of arms control.” The U.S. will not propose a resolution imposing mandatory prohibitions on nuclear explosive testing, she vowed.
The U.S. Senate rejected CTBT ratification in 1999, leaving the United States today one of eight nations that must still ratify the treaty for it to enter into force. Now, the Obama administration is discussing with Security Council member states a resolution to bring that effort back into focus.
“The resolution we have in mind would in no way be a substitute for entry into force of the CTBT, which would require, among other things, ratification by the United States with the advice and the consent of the U.S. Senate,” Gottemoeller said.
Instead, the resolution is meant to provide momentum for entry into force, with each state fulfilling its internal procedures for ratification. Gottemoeller did not offer details on the specific language the resolution would employ, saying diplomatic negotiations with the other 14 Security Council member states are ongoing.
Adam Scheinman, special representative of the president for nuclear nonproliferation, said the resolution is “in a somewhat advanced state of negotiation; we hope to have it completed and issued before the end of the month.”
“The discussions with other P5 states have gone very well,” Scheinman said. “They’re all supportive of the concept and the construct that we have proposed – a P5 statement that would run in parallel to a resolution.”
Gottemoeller said the resolution would also serve to strengthen the moral authority of the moratoria on nuclear testing, as well as to bolster the work of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, which is working to establish the global verification regime, namely the International Monitoring System.
The system consists of hundreds of monitoring stations worldwide that detect test events that could indicate a violation of the treaty. The IMS is over 85 percent complete, and will ultimately feature 337 monitoring facilities using seismological, radionuclide, hydroacoustic, or infrasound technologies for detection.
The detection system was put to the test again last week when North Korea conducted its fifth and apparently strongest underground nuclear detonation. CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo said at least 25 detection stations had identified the seismic event.
Thirty-three GOP senators sent a letter last week to President Barack Obama threatening to block U.S. funding for the CTBTO – roughly $32 million per year – in the event of a Security Council resolution that imposes international obligations on the United States, adding that the U.S. “has no need for the CTBT international monitoring system given our own national capabilities.” The United States’ national technical means of verification include satellite imagery, electro-optical intelligence, and infrared and seismic sensors.
The signatories said the push for action in the U.N. is an attempt to bypass the Senate’s role in approving the United States’ ascension into international treaties.
Scheinman said he doesn’t believe that such a threat exists. With regard to withholding funding for CTBT operations, he noted that the U.S. has funded the International Monitoring System under both Republican and Democratic administrations, likely because “the IMS actually adds to our own verification . . . that’s why it’s had support of Republicans historically, and I suspect that that will remain.”
