Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation Chief to Meet With Lavrov in Russia

VIENNA (Sputnik) - Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), Robert Floyd, told Sputnik on 4 October that he will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and officials from the state nuclear corporation Rosatom during his visit to Moscow from 4-6 October.

"Minister Lavrov has been so kind as to invite me to visit ... I am very honoured and looking forward for our first meeting. I think our meeting will be very much an opportunity to get to know each other, and the relationship between the Russian Federation and the CTBTO is an important relationship, therefore the relationship between me and Minister Lavrov is an important one", Floyd said.

Floyd said he will also meet with high-ranking officials from Rosatom's security department, where the CTBTO has counterparts, for technical cooperation on the installation of international monitoring system stations in Russia.

"I'll be meeting with Nikolay Spassky, the deputy director general of Rosatom, we've met before and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Nikolay again", the CTBTO chief said.

No agreements are expected to be signed during his visit, according to Floyd.

The UN General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on 24 September 1996 in New York. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after ratification by all 44 states that have nuclear weapons or are potentially capable of developing them. The list of these countries is determined by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thirty-six of them, including Russia, have already ratified the treaty, while the United States is among the countries that have yet to ratify it.