Putin OKs Law on Ratification of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed the Federal Law on the Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

This law was approved by the State Duma, the lower house of the parliament, on April 21 and confirmed by the Federation Council, the upper chamber, on May 17, 2000.

The United Nations General Assembly passed the treaty by a overwhelming majority of 158 votes against three with five abstentions on September 10, 1996. By April this year, 155 countries have signed the convention and 57 of them have approved it.

Under the CTBT, signed in New York on September 24, 1996, effective nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation will be achieved by limiting the development and qualitative perfection of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, it urges all countries to continue their efforts in reducing nuclear arms at global level with the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons on earth.

The treaty bans any test involving a nuclear blast. It will come into force only after the last of its 155 participants, including the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, China, India Pakistan and other nuke-potential states, hands its ratification charter to the UN.

The United States, who has the world's largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal, has not approved the CTBT. The U.S. Senate rejected it in late 1999.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/