The Project for the CTBT aims to support and coordinate the work of NGOs and policy, scientific and security experts in order to provide the public and policy-makers with sound information and analysis about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The following updates provide news and analyses on the status of the treaty and work of the CTBT Organization. To receive these by email, subscribe to our regular updates list.
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Senior U.S. government officials have been touring different states to deliver addresses explaining the national security benefits of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty since October, with Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller and Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation Ambassador Adam Scheinman taking the lead.
As part of its response to tough new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council following its fourth nuclear test explosion on January 6, the Pyongyang regime has threatened a new round of nuclear tests and claims to have developed a warhead design small enough to load on a ballistic missile.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for an official visit to Japan from February 29 to March 2. According to a joint statement issued Feb. 29, they discussed a range of bilateral and international issues, including nuclear nonproliferation, disarmament and the CTBT.
The United States should ratify the treaty banning nuclear tests “the sooner the better”, according to George Shultz, a former Republican presidential adviser known best as the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan.
Noting that CTBT entry into force is, unfortunately, still many years away, a number of U.S.-based NGOs are actively pursuing a campaign aimed at UN Security Council members and other “Friends of the CTBT” states to pursue a non-binding UN Security Council resolution and a parallel UN General Assembly measure to reinforce the norm against testing.
On January 27, Israel’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Merav Zafary-Odiz, spoke of the country's commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing and potential future ratification of the CTBT.
In 2009, the Arms Control Association launched this project to help disseminate information, ideas, and analysis about the “longest-sought, hardest-fought prize” in arms control—the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)—and the steps to bring it into force. Since then, we’ve seen progress in many areas. At the same time, there have been setbacks and disappointments.
On January 6, North Korea conducted its fourth underground nuclear weapons test explosion. The government in Pyongyang claims it conducted a successful test that “scientifically verified the power” of a small hydrogen bomb.
This past October, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller visited several states where the United States conducted some of the 1,030 nuclear weapons test explosion before the end of nuclear weapons testing in September 1992. Her mission: to speak about the enduring value of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)—which the United States was the first to sign but is still among the last few that has not yet ratified.
On October 27, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed and adopted a joint statement in support of the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).