Vienna - Colombia ratified the nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), lowering the number of countries still needed for the treaty's entry into force to nine, officials of the preparatory commission CTBTO announced Wednesday in Vienna. "Colombia's ratification was significant, now we have a count-down starting," CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Toth said.
The CTBT, banning all nuclear testing, created in 1996, needs ratification by 44 so-called Annex 2 countries that include all nations with nuclear technology, before entering into force.
The treaty was signed by 178 states, and ratified by 144, among them nuclear powers Russia, France or Britain. The ratifications from the United States, China, Iran, Indonesia, Israel and Egypt are still outstanding. India, Pakistan and North Korea have neither signed nor ratified the treaty.
"We consider Colombia a tipping point for Latin America," Toth said, expressing hope for the remaining Latin American states, among them Cuba and Guatemala, to ratify.
Colombia's ratification had been delayed by lengthy legal procedures, Colombian Ambassador Rosso Jose Serrano Cadena said.
"It was no matter of lack of commitment to the nature of the process," he stressed.
Toth expressed a hope for the remaining Annex 2 countries to put aside geo-strategic considerations: "There is no security risk in being an early ratifier."
In the United States, bi-partisan efforts indicated that a reappraisal of US opposition to ratification may be underway, Toth said, even before a possible change of policy after the US presidential elections. It was important that the CTBT is embraced by both major US political parties, as for ratification in the Senate a two-thirds majority is required.
If it was possible for the country to de-link the issue from geo- strategic considerations, ratification by China, would be an equally positive signal.
If there was further progress in the Six-Party talks with North Korea, signing the CTBT would be a "logical first step" by the country to re-join the non-proliferation community, Toth said.
