A bold stand against nuclear proliferation
As news headlines herald a return to a darker age of nuclear brinkmanship, with fears that different states might develop, test or even use nuclear weapons, 176 countries have chosen to take a bold stand.
The 25th anniversary year of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which opened for signature on September 24, 1996, has generated fresh momentum towards securing a world free of nuclear testing by anyone, anywhere, for all time.
In the past year alone, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu have stepped up to ratify the Treaty, recognizing that the international community’s best protection against nuclear threats is to strengthen and reinforce the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, of which the CTBT is a core element.
Although it has not yet entered into force, the CTBT is already delivering on its promise for a safer world. Ratified already by 176 states and signed by 186, it is a strong collective confidence- and security-building measure and a powerful brake on nuclear proliferation, preventing the development of more deadly nuclear weapons and curbing a dangerous spiral of global nuclear competition.
A landmark achievement, the CTBT brought a firm close to an era of unrestrained nuclear testing that fueled the Cold War nuclear arms race. More than 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted in the five decades from the first nuclear explosion above the desert sands in New Mexico in 1945 to the birth of the CTBT in 1996.
Since then, the CTBT has created and sustained a norm against nuclear testing so powerful that less than a dozen nuclear tests have been conducted following its adoption; a norm breached by only one country since the turn of this century.
And it has the means to back this up: a global monitoring system that allows no nuclear explosion to go undetected. Compliance with the CTBT will be demonstrated by the International Monitoring System (IMS), a network of state-of-the-art monitoring facilities strategically located across the globe. Now, more than 93% complete, it has already demonstrated its effectiveness by quickly and accurately detecting all six nuclear tests carried out in this millennium.
IMS data can also benefit humanity in a plethora of broader ways, from aiding early tsunami warnings or studying climate change to strengthening international response capabilities in the event of a nuclear emergency.
But norms and good intentions are not enough. The CTBT needs to enter into force.
As we move forward, it is crucial that we continue to focus on practical steps to strengthen the Treaty and urge states that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the CTBT.
This op-ed is jointly signed by:
Dr Robert Floyd, executive secretary, Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
Ms Izumi Nakamitsu, under-secretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, United Nations
H.E. Mr Kausea Natano, primer minister, Tuvalu
H.E. Mr Kenneth Darroux, minister for foreign affairs, international business and diaspora relations, Commonwealth of Dominica
H.E. Mr Simeon Oyono Esono Angue, minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation, Republic of Equatorial Guinea
H.E. Mr Mamadou Tangara, minister for foreign affairs, international cooperation and Gambians abroad, Republic of The Gambia
H.E. Ms Adaljiza Albertina Xavier Reis Magno, minister for foreign affairs and cooperation, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
