PRESS RELEASE

27 June 1996

Test Ban Delayed

Ambassador Jaap Ramaker, chair of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations, today stated that negotiators were not able to agree finally on a CTBT by the 28 June deadline they set for themselves. Instead, a complete text of the Treaty will be set down by Ambassador Ramaker tomorrow afternoon and sent back to capitals for approval. Negotiations will reconvene on 29 July at the Conference on Disarmament (CD), where the Treaty is being drawn up. At that point formal endorsement of the Treaty and its submission to the UN could be agreed. It is possible however, that negotiations could drag on for some time.

France announced today that it could support the current version of the Treaty put down by Ambassador Ramaker, providing the section on Entry into Force is improved. France is the first nuclear-weapon state to declare its support for a Treaty text. The issue of Entry into Force (or how the Treaty will take effect) is one of the three remaining key issues, along with the Preamble of the Treaty and the provisions for how an on-site inspection will be triggered.

The debate on Entry into Force focuses on whether all five nuclear-weapon states and the threshold states, India, Israel and Pakistan, are required to ratify the Treaty before it can take effect. The UK, Russia and Pakistan, sometimes supported by China, are insisting that all eight must ratify before the treaty takes effect. However, India last week announced it would not sign the Treaty as it stands, raising the prospect that the Treaty could fall into limbo.

In light of India's announcement, the United States and France, supported by the vast majority of other states at the negotiations, are seeking a way to allow the Treaty to be implemented without India s ratification. Many countries support requiring a simple number of countries to ratify, without specifying which ones. This is the formula used in the Chemical Weapons Convention. There is also some support for a proposal that would keep the current formula but add a conference, whose powers and objectives are still under discussion. The UK and Russia have objected to a conference which could directly bring the treaty into force, but other options are being proposed.

Russia, which is in the middle of Presidential elections, has indicated it will not be able to give its support to the Treaty for at least three weeks. Speaking from Geneva, Stephen Young, Senior Analyst at BASIC said: "The UK, Russia, Pakistan and China continue to hold up agreement on the Test Ban. While sperficially appealing, their position undermines the goal of having a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty come into force. One has to question whether they want a Treaty when they demand India sign but do nothing to meet India's concerns on disarmament."

Dan Plesch, Director of BASIC added: "This Treaty needs a clear and simple entry into force process. In essence a Test Ban Treaty has been finalised. What is lacking is the political will to bring it home."

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