By DPA
Vienna : United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday urged member countries to ratify the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
In a message to a two-day conference on the implementation of the treaty taking place in Vienna, Ban called on “all states that have not yet signed or ratified to do so as soon as possible…especially those whose ratification is required”.
Ratification was especially pressing for those countries, whose approval is needed for the treaty, which was negotiated in 1996, to come into force.
The CTBT envisages a complete ban on nuclear testing.
While 177 countries have already signed the treaty, it can enter into force only if it is ratified by 44 countries possessing nuclear technology, the so-called Annex 2 states.
Ten ratifications are outstanding, among them from the United States, India, Pakistan, China, North Korea and Indonesia.
Ban hoped that North Korea’s test in October 2006 would be remembered in history books as the last nuclear test in history.
The Vienna conference aims at increasing pressure on those countries still reluctant to ratify and increase public awareness of the work of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
The organization has already built up a global monitoring system for observing adherence to the ban. The system consists of 300-plus stations collecting seismic, hydroacoustic, radionuclide and infrasound data. This data is also being employed for tsunami warning and earthquake research.