“We very concerned particularly about nuclear arms racing in Asia,” Gottemoeller told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.
She noted that bringing up the treaty for consideration and ratification in the Senate “would be futile at this time."
However, Gottemoeller argued the United States needs to take its time and make an effort to really look at the national security value of the treaty.
“In my view, one of its great values is that it places a barrier in the way of this arms race in Asia that is creating more nuclear weapon's capacity in countries in Asia much more than we saw a decade ago. So this is a problem," Gottemoeller stated.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty enforces a global ban on nuclear testing. All five nuclear weapons states — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom — are signatories to the treaty. However, the United States and China have not yet ratified it.
President Barack Obama, faces a Republican majority in the Senate — the government body that reviews treaties in the United States — that opposes ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty he is seeking.
