Lassina Zerbo has been appointed to a second four-year term as executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Organization. Zerbo assumed his current role in August 2013, having previously served as the director of the organization’s International Data Center. In announcing the news, the Vienna, Austria-based organization highlighted in a tweet Zerbo’s “professionalism & leadership.”
The same week, the United States elected Donald Trump as its next president, raising questions about the future of U.S. nuclear policy. While CTBT ratification is unlikely to appear on the Trump administration’s agenda, Zerbo this week expressed some hope otherwise.
“Let me first off congratulate President-elect Trump upon his election. He faces many challenges in this role and I would like to assure him of our cooperation when it comes to questions of nuclear non-proliferation and banning nuclear testing,” Zerbo said in an emailed statement, noting the CTBTO’s close working relationship with the U.S. on scientific cooperation.
The CTBTO Preparatory Commission is working to establish a global verification regime, the International Monitoring System, which is over 85 percent complete and consists of hundreds of monitoring stations worldwide to detect potential underground nuclear tests.
The United States contributes roughly $32 million per year to the CTBTO budget and supports the organization’s strengthening of nuclear explosive test monitoring capabilities. The U.S. is also the host of the greatest number of International Monitoring System facilities, for which it funds operation and maintenance.
“Of course I realize that the priorities of a Trump administration might be different from those of the Obama administration. At the same time, I have always maintained that a legally binding ban on nuclear testing is not and should not be a partisan issue,” Zerbo said. “We have also heard from many supporters from both sides of the political spectrum that ratifying the CTBT is in the security interests of the United States. I look forward to continuing our partnership to educate and inform in the U.S. and beyond, so that we can jointly address any concerns in achieving the entry into force of the Treaty.”
President Barack Obama during his time in office promoted U.S. ratification of the CTBT, which the Senate originally rejected in 1999, though he never formally resubmitted the accord for reconsideration by the upper chamber. The United States is now one of eight nations that must still ratify the treaty for it to enter into force; the others are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan.
Republicans in Congress have shown no sign that they are ready to approve U.S. ratification of the treaty, arguing the United States might one day need to conduct explosive nuclear testing to build new nuclear weapons, questioning the efficacy of the CTBT detection regime, and arguing that domestic detection capabilities managed by the U.S. Geological Survey are up to the task of identifying a secret nuclear test.
Arms control advocates, as one might expect, disagree on all counts. They note that the CTBT monitoring system has detected all five underground nuclear tests conducted by North Korea, the only nation today carrying out such explosive blasts. An informal moratorium is no replacement for a legally binding prohibition on nuclear testing, advocates say.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council in late September adopted a nonbinding resolution urging global ratification of the treaty and sustaining the moratoria on nuclear testing until the accord enters into force.
In a keynote speech earlier this month to the European Union Nonproliferation and Disarmament Conference, Zerbo dismissed the characterization of the CTBTO as a “zombie organization.” He noted a number of achievements in 2016, including the Security Council’s passage of Resolution 2310 on the CTBT.
“So, what 2310 does, it is an inspiration,” Zerbo said. “An inspiration for finally securing a legally binding global ban on nuclear testing. Not only does it express determination to bring the treaty into force, it also recognizes and puts at the disposal of you, the international community, the international monitoring system and the verification regime that we are building. So what we must do now is increase the momentum towards the entering into force of the CTBT.”
