PRESS RELEASE

21 May 1996

Chinese Nuclear Test Taints Test Ban Negotiations

China today conducted its third nuclear test since the 1995 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference. The test comes at a time when negotiations at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Disarmament for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty are entering a critical phase. Negotiators have set a 28 June deadline for reaching agreement on the treaty, a timetable they must keep to be able to sign the treaty this Fall at the UN General Assembly. The Chinese test will only make negotiations more difficult, as India, a threshold nuclear state, continues to argue that unless its demands are met the treaty will discriminate in favour of the existing nuclear weapon states.

The test comes during a period of great uncertainty as to the future stance of India on nuclear weapons as newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Shankar Dayal Sharma seeks to form a government. During the Indian election campaign, the BJP pledged to deploy nuclear weapons openly and to oppose the CTBT.

This latest Chinese test breaks the spirit, if not the letter, of the Principles and Objectives for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament agreed at the NPT Conference in May 1995, which commit China and the other nuclear weapon states to exercising "utmost restraint" on nuclear testing and to completing a CTBT by 1996.

Dan Plesch, Director of BASIC today said:

"China's continued testing makes a mockery of international efforts for a nuclear test ban. At this time all five nuclear weapon states should be getting on with the job of banning nuclear tests forever, not demonstrating a commitment to keeping nuclear weapons forever."

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