Russia has shown its determination
to reach factual nuclear weapons reduction and disarmament,
said Igor D. Sergeev, assistant to the Russian President.
Speaking at the Second Conference on Facilitating
the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty (CTBT) he reaffirmed his countries' commitment
to ratify the treaty.
The
two day conference that started today at the United
Nations in New York aims to examine the extent to which
the requirements of the CTBT have been met for it to
be ratified. It also intends to decide by consensus,
what measures should be taken to facilitate its early
entry into force. The conference is being convened
by the Secretary General, Kofi A. Annan. He did so
at the request of the majority of states that have
ratified it.
Sergeev
reminded the delegates that the Treaty was open
for signing
five years ago. However it
has still not entered into force. "There are
dangerous trends towards disrupting it [CTBT]," he
warned.
In 1996 the UN General Assembly adopted the CTBT.
Right away 71 member states signed the Treaty,
including five nuclear powers. Russia has ratified
the treaty.
According
to Sergeev, his country is confident that "present-day science and technology provide
sufficient set of measures to assure the reliability
and safely of nuclear weapons." He said that
opponents of the CTBT believe the opposite.
While
trying to put reluctant parties worries to rest
he said, "The
unprecedented international verification mechanism
being developed under the
CTBT and the available modern national means of
monitoring make it absolutely impossible to hide
any violations of the Treaty."
To show the importance of the Treaty to Russia,
Sergeev read a statement from the country's President,
Vladimir V. Putin. The statement stressed that
ratifying the CTBT was in the best interest of
the world community.
"Russia has always considered this Treaty
a most important instrument in the fields of nuclear
weapons limitation, strengthening of the international
nuclear non-proliferation regime and preservation
of the strategic stability in the world," Putin
said in his address. He referred to Russia's attitude
as "responsible" and stressed that his
country will continue in the same manner.
As Russia tries to do its part in the facilitation
of the ratification of the CTBT, 32 member states
of the UN have not signed the Treaty. The ratification
by forty-four states, which include the seven nuclear
powers, is needed for the Treaty to go into force.
Currently 41 of these have signed and 31 have ratified.
Three countries, namely the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan are yet to
sign.
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