Indonesia Brings Good News for CTBT Entry into Force


The Jakarta Post reported today that Indonesia plans to ratify the CTBT soon, despite previous announcements that the country would wait to ratify the treaty until the United States Senate voted to ratify.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the Indonesian House of Representatives yesterday that he will officially announce the ratification during the NPT Review Conference next month in New York. "We have been holding off the ratification process since 2002 as we expected the US and other nuclear weapons states to ratify first," said Natalegawa. "However, we decided there was no point in delaying it. We do not want our policy to be steered by the US' decisions. We can move it forward with a note that there must be a move to push the US to ratify...The US needs a template it can take as an example when dealing with the [S]enate on ratification."

Indonesia is an Annex 2 State to the CTBT; when it ratifies the treaty, it will bring down the number of ratifications required for CTBT entry into force to 8 states.