PRESS RELEASE

26 June 1996

UK Isolated Amongst G7 on Test Ban Treaty

Tomorrow's G7 Heads of Government meeting in Lyon will be critical in determining whether a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is achieved on schedule by the end of this week. With the CTBT on the G7 agenda, the UK is isolated on the issue of entry into force of the Treaty. The G7 meeting will provide an opportunity for President Clinton to discuss the issue with John Major in person.

The principal stumbling block to the CTBT is now intransigence on the part of the UK, Russia and Pakistan on the issue of Entry into Force (how and when the Treaty takes effect). The UK insists that the five nuclear-weapon states and the three "threshold states", India, Pakistan and Israel, must sign and ratify the CTBT before it can enter into force. On 20 June, India indicated that it will not sign the Treaty in its current form, meaning that if the UK, Russia and Pakistan persist, they risk agreeing a Treaty which may never take effect. The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference set the deadline of 1996 for achieving a CTBT. Chairman of the NPT Conference, Ambassador Dhanapala describes the Entry into Force formula favoured by the UK as conferring a "unique veto power" on each of the states mentioned and calls it "a retrogressive step in international law and in nuclear disarmament".

The US and France have indicated that they are willing to show flexibility on this issue in order to achieve the Treaty on schedule. Yesterday, the US stated that since the Indian announcement of 20 June, it was no longer viable to negotiate on the basis of an entry into force requirement of 37 states including the threshold states. It said that it was willing to consider an Entry into Force condition of a simple number of states, a simple number including the five declared nuclear-weapon states, or a waiver formula including that suggested by the Chairman of the negotiations, Ambassador Ramaker, last week.

On 24 June, 18 delegations to the negotiations signed a Declaration expressing their deep concern "that there exist fundamental challenges to the successful conclusion by June 28 of negotiations on a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty". The Declaration continues: "We regret that many delegations have to date not been willing to make the compromises vital for success". Signatories to the Declaration include the G7 states: Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan.

BASIC Senior Analyst, Stephen Young, who is present at the negotiations, today stated: "The UK must stop blocking negotiations and accept a Treaty text without loopholes, which does not delay entry into force of the treaty".

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