UNITED NATIONS, September 27. /TASS/. A number of countries must exert political will and take concrete steps in order for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to enter into effect, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said Monday.
"We urge the leadership of the countries that the CTBT’s fate depends on to exert political will and responsibility, and to take concrete steps on its signing and/or ratification as soon as possible," he said, speaking at the UN Security Council meeting.
The CTBT was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 10, 1996. On September 24 that year, the document became open for signing, but it has still not entered into effect, because it must be ratified by the 44 states, listed in the annex to the treaty. Currently, the treaty was signed, but not ratified by the US, China, Egypt, Israel and Iran, while three "young" nuclear powers - India, Pakistan and North Korea - did not sign it at all.