UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — All five nuclear weapons states as recognized by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons — the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom, signed the CTBT on 24 September 1996 — the day it opened for signature.
To date, the CTBT has been signed by 183 countries. Eight countries among those have yet to ratify the treaty, including the United States. Until these countries have ratified, the treaty will not come into force.
"The policy of the United States is a serious obstacle to further nuclear reductions,” Mikhail Ulyanov said Monday at the 2015 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.
“This is due to their persistent implementation of a line which objectively shakes global strategic stability through the unilateral creation of a global missile defense system, the gradual implementation the concept of instant global strike, the opposition to start negotiations to ban the deployment of weapons in space and the absence of any progress towards ratification of the CTBT [Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty],” Ulyanov explained.
The 2015 NPT Review kicked off April 27 at the United Nations headquarters in New York and will continue to May 22. The conference, held once in five years since 1975, is set to review how the nonproliferation regime is maintained.
