CTBTO Chief Says Ratification Of Treaty By China, N.Korea Would Secure Disarmament Future

The chief of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, expressed on Monday hope that China, North Korea and the United States ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and said that such a move, if taken, would change the future of non-proliferation.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2018) The chief of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, expressed on Monday hope that China, North Korea and the United States ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and said that such a move, if taken, would change the future of non-proliferation.

"My dream is to wake up and find that China, the United States, and the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] DPRK say that, as part of the process [of denuclearization], they will all ratify the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. This will change the dynamics of non-proliferation and disarmament and will get some of people in the developing world to trust and then to get more confident about the future of disarmament, the future of non-proliferation," Zerbo said at a panel session of the 15th annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.

The treaty, under which all 184 signatories pledge to halt nuclear weapon tests, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996. However, it will enter into force only after all states mentioned in Annex 2 sign it. As of now, the treaty requires ratification by China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

The annual session of the Valdai Discussion Club, which was established in 2004 to promote political dialogue and strengthen peaceful conflict resolution, has started on Monday and will last through Thursday.